Cyprus | Association

The Cyprus Advanced Driving and Road Safety Network is a voluntary organisation promoting road safety in Cyprus. The network consists of people who have various road safety skills and believe in using those skills to help reduce the number of road traffic accidents in Cyprus. There are currently 15 regularly active and 15 unpaid volunteers.

We believe there is insufficient information and advice offered concerning driving and road safety matters. We wish to raise awareness and develop positive attitudes. To do this, we will hold public talks upon request, write articles and run a website promoting road safety. The articles will be published in a monthly local magazine and in national newspapers. We are planning to hold 10 public talks and publish 12 articles per year from 2006 to 2009.

There are few means for drivers to improve their knowledge or driving skills. We offer driver training, information and advice to members of the public. The number and length of courses is not fixed. It is dependent on the availability of trainers and the individual students’ ability. The benefit is not only to the student, but also to the general public. By using advanced driving techniques, it is often possible to compensate for another person’s bad driving and avoid an accident. Our objective is to give from 10 to 25 of these free courses per year until 2009.

We also improve police driving standards and knowledge by holding advanced police driving and motorcycle courses. These one- and two-week courses are at no cost to the Cyprus Police Force. By targeting the training towards the driving school and specialist, high profile units of the Police Force, the information is spread effectively throughout the Police Service. All new recruits are now taught basic advanced driving techniques. Our aim is to train 12 police officers in 2006 and 12 in 2007.

We feel there are a lot of badly placed or inappropriate traffic signs, which combine to make some roads dangerous. To help combat this, we will carry out driving hazard assessments on roads when requested and make recommendations to the appropriate authorities. Our objective is to carry out 15 of these assessments per year until 2009 and thus help to improve the safety of Cyprus roads. Some of the reports, when not confidential, may be published on our website.

In order to contribute to reducing accidents in Cyprus, we will meet with any organisation and take any other action required. We will offer the information and the contact details of any organisation promoting road safety to any other organisation that has similar goals and is appropriate. We will also promote the European Road Safety Charter amongst the organisations with which we are in contact.