Tag: driving

Police enforce new drink and speeding regulations

Police enforce new drink and speeding regulations

THE POLICE have started issuing on-the-spot fines for speeding and drinking offences this week implementing a law that empowers the police to immediately punish offenders, the head of traffic police Demetris Demetriou said yesterday.

“Now we’ve got immediate sentences rather than sentences in court after two years,” Demetriou said.

For drinking under the influence of alcohol, the police will issue on-the-spot fines and/or penalty points to anyone whose breath test registers up to 70 micrograms per 100 ml. The limit is 22mg/dL.

The fines are €100 for up to 35mg/dL; €200 and two penalty points for between 36mg/dL and 55mg/dL; €300 and three penalty points for between 56 mg/dL and 70mg/dL.

Anyone reading over 70mg/dL will go to court and could get six penalty points, a fine of up to €400 and at least €150, and/or a jail sentence.

Drivers will also be issued on-the-spot fines and will be punished with €1.0 for each kilometre per hour when they have exceeded the limit by up to 30 per cent.

When driving between 31 per cent and 50 per cent faster than the limit, drivers will pay €2.0 per km/h and two penalty points.

Driving between 51 per cent and 75 per cent faster than the limit is punishable costs €3.0 per km/h and three penalty points.

International parking tickets in Washington D.C. and New York

Freakonomics has an interesting article on pending parking tickets for a number of embassies in Washington D.C. and New York.

In 2003, the state department issued dire warnings to embassies in New York and D.C. threatening to withhold foreign assistance if parking tickets were not paid.  So far though, it seems no foreign assistance has been withheld.

Here’s D.C.’s top offenders:

Russia – $27,200
Yemen – $24,600
Cameroon – $19,520
France – $19,520
Mauritania – $8,070

The Holy See, it’s worth noting, has only one outstanding ticket for $25.

In New York, the list of top offenders is a different set:

Egypt – $1,929,142
Kuwait – $1,266,901
Nigeria – $1,019,998
Indonesia – $692,200
Brazil – $608,733

So what do these countries have in common?  Oil wealth? Moxie? In 2006, Forbes Magazine hypothesized that it was the level of a country’s corruption (according to the Corruption Perception Index) that predicted the level of parking ticket delinquency, along with a country’s level of anti-American sentiment.

Biggest-ever road safety campaign in Cyprus

Cyprus Mail reports:

CYPRUS yesterday launched what was described as the biggest road safety campaign in the eastern Mediterranean involving the printing of over a million leaflets aimed at locals and tourists.The leaflets in several languages explaining the island’s traffic codes, will be placed in planes, ships, rental cars, hotels and tourist resortsThere will also be televised spots on planes and ships, offering tourists some useful information on Cyprus’ traffic network – such as, the allowable alcohol limits, speed limits and legal obligation to wear seatbelts; for front seat as well as backseat passengers. The campaign is called Grand Road Safety Project 001.

While I applaud the effort and the breadth of this campaign, I think there is a single issue that, if addressed, will significantly increase the road safety on this island – driving license exam.  Reading through a twenty-something pages of “How to pass a driving license exam” and spending as little as 12 hours on the public roads with instructor should not be enough to get the driving license.  There are so many everyday situations that aren’t even mentioned in the book – no surprise people have no clue how drive when it comes to it.