Cities across Cyprus are struggling with roads being transformed into racing circuits by cars and motorcycles, with young people moving to areas with available space for illegal races following a fatal crash earlier this week.
The problem affects all cities, with police identifying known areas where roads or avenues, mainly during night hours, become racing tracks. In Nicosia, police have recorded more than five areas where illegal racing occurs.
Beyond Larnacos Avenue in Aglantzia, where afatal collision occurred killing 20-year-old Kyriakos Antoniou, races take place in the Dali industrial area, the SOPAZ area, and in Lakatamia, where the motorway under the “Tsangalides” lights to the Archangelos junction becomes an evening venue for motorcycle riders to let off steam, as well as on Salaminos Avenue.
The Makarios Stadium car park also becomes a circuit for manoeuvres with modified vehicles.
Other areas transformed into speed circuits include Makarios Avenue in Limassol, the Kato Paphos area and elsewhere.
The problem is long-standing, and police emphasise they conduct targeted interventions and measures, but young people return. As observed, once information is received about racing drivers, by the time police arrive, they have disappeared and return shortly after.
Evidence of this is Larnacos Avenue in Aglantzia, where 786 complaints were made in six months, most for speeding, but the problem was not solved.
When Aglantzia Municipality filed complaints with police or citizens protested about vehicle rallies, patrol cars were sent to the area.
However, the area was mainly policed by vans with mobile cameras that recorded vehicles violating speed limits. This measure proved ineffective, as racing continued with an innocent child paying the price.
Both Nicosia and Aglantzia municipalities wrote to police, recording that there is a serious problem with frequent street car racing at high speeds during evening hours, endangering the safety of residents and drivers in the area.
The problem must be examined comprehensively, and measures taken as happened on Grivas Digenis Avenue, where, in cooperation with Public Works, speed bumps and humps were installed, along with two fixed cameras, solving the problem that had plagued residents and passers-by for years.
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