‘Overall road fatalities have not decreased’

THE overall number of fatal road accidents in the TRNC has not decreased during the Covid-19 pandemic, police figures released this week showed.

No fatal accidents occurred during the lockdown imposed from March to May 2020 after the first coronavirus case was detected in the country on March 10, 2020.

However, 27 people still died in 24 fatal accidents in the whole of 2020. That compared to 30 deaths from the same number of collisions in 2019.

Compared to 2019, there was a decrease in the total number of accidents in 2020. While 3,575 accidents occurred in 2019, there were 2,854 road traffic accidents reported in 2020.

Despite the implementation of a second lockdown earlier this year and ongoing nightly and Sunday curfews, eight people have lost their lives on the road in the first four months of 2021.

“Unfortunately, our drivers like to speed, they like talking on their mobile phones and they do not want to wear seat belts,” Police Traffic Department head Şevket Derindağ said.

Of the accidents that occurred in 2019, 808 resulted in 1,208 injured people. In 2020, 563 accidents left 754 people injured.

In 2021, three fatal accidents were caused by “careless driving”, two by “excessive speed”, two “by alcohol” and one by “not stopping at an intersection”.

The ages of drivers in fatal accidents in 2021 ranged from 20 to 87. The ages of the four drivers who lost their lives were reported as 20, 24, 40 and 87.

Police Traffic Department Head Şevket Derindağ said that following the gradual reopening, traffic increased mainly in the Girne-Karpaz regions. There was an increase in fatal accidents primarily in the Girne region, he said.