Traffic fines: same penalties, longer payment period

Out-of-court fines for traffic violations will largely remain the same but offenders will have more time to pay them, according to tweaks to the legislation discussed in parliament on Thursday.

The House transport committee was reviewing six government bills amending laws governing traffic fines and the use of cameras in cities.

Presenting the bills, Transport Minister Alexis Vafeadis said the €300 fine for crossing the ‘stop’ line at an intersection will not change. But the amount payable would be slashed by half if the fine is settled within 30 days.

MPs heard that to date the state has collected €9.3 million from some 320,000 paid fines, while 24,165 fines remain unpaid.

Vafeadis said also that one of the coming changes will see increasing the deadline for paying a fine from 45 to 60 days.

“It’s similar to paying in instalments, because people get more time to collect the [fine] amount, while this also avoids extra administrative costs,” he said.

The objective of traffic cameras is to reduce the number of accidents and traffic violations at intersections, the minister noted.

Last year, authorities recorded 20,000 instances of drivers running a red light.

“With the installation of the cameras at intersections, these are monitored 24 hours a day, and no one can get away with a violation,” he said.

Vafeadis revealed that many members of the public have contacted the ministry complaining about the amount of the fines.

He conceded that some of the fines are “crippling”. However, a system of deterrence needs to exist, so authorities must find the sweet spot between that and excessive punishment of wayward motorists.

For his part, chair of the transport committee Marinos Mousiouttas (Dipa) remarked that “it’s extremely unfair for someone to pay €25 for going over the first stop line, and €300 for going over the second line.”

Akel MP Costas Costa said running a red light is a serious offence, but at the same time many drivers are caught out because of the imperfect technical system.

“It’s no excuse that we [the government] won’t place an order for traffic lights with a countdown timer. We either should have a countdown timer, or the green light should flash on and off.”

Valentinos Fakondis, also of Akel, noted that the camera system has turned into “a tax collection system in the hands of the government”.

Regarding the stiff fines, Diko MP Christos Orfanides said that 50 per cent of the population are either low-income earners or unemployed.