Press Meeting with the Columnists (21.10.2010)

A dinner event for the columnists was organised in Lefkoşa Merit Hotel. Mr. Ersan Saner participated the meeting and expressed that traffic was a priority in our country. He said "In parallel to high per capita income, the number of car per person in our country is 1.2 and this rate is above EU average. On the other side whilst 1 in each 100 citizens die in traffic accidents in developed countries, in our country, despite the high education level, this rate is 3-4 times more." Mr Saner declared that this was not acceptable.

Excess speed was referred as the cause for 60% of fatal accidents by Mr. Saner, and Road Safety Campaign being implemented by Piri Group was referred as highly important considering 85% of all road accidents were caused by human related factors.

He specifically declared that quality of the trainings at driving schhols and trainings for youth were in need of improvement, and also mentioned sustainability as a key issue inorder the statistical trends to change positively in the following years.

Mr. Saner also provided information on the other EU funded projects being implemented.

About the roadway infrastructure, he mentioned “improvement of road standards”, “road classifications”, “New Jersey barriers”, “led lightening systems”, “average speed detection cameras”.

Mr. Ersan Saner continued by answering the questions from the columnists. He mentioned lack of respect as a major issue in traffic. Referring to a question related to enforcement by tough police controls, expressed that "Training and enforcement should be in coordination to solve road safety problem. However, though people obey the rules in the southern part, passing to this side they change behaviour. This has nothing to do with the power of the authority".
 

Then;

Chairman of the Road Accidents Prevention Association Dr. Mehmet Zeki Avcı provided information on the EU projects implemented:

Dr. Mehmet Avcı expressed that there was a great effort for all projects and the steering committee had been working on voluntary basis for the last 2 years undertaking an extra respınsiblity besides their main obligations; however he believed a good progress would be achieved at the end of these projects.

Team Leader Mr. Tamer Altunay gave a presentation on what had been done till then in the project and provided information on the current severity of road safety problem in the country as well as campaign activities planned in the short-run.

Mr. Faik Gümüş from DG Police  referred to Public Relations and Attitude trainings delivered by the universities, for all police in the country in 2010 . He said "Though I accept there are still some weaknesses, we are in a continuous development process".

This project is funded by the European Union and implemented by Piri Group consortium.