Nineteen of the forty-three killed on the roads this year died because drivers were using mobile phones or not paying attention.
These figures were presented to the road safety council on Friday, by both Transport Minister Alexis Vafeades and newly appointed Justice Minister Constantinos Fitiris.
Vafeades said the scale of deaths linked directly to phones could “not be tolerated” and demanded the council meet ahead of schedule in January.
The minister intends to adopt immediate measures to mitigate these fatalities.
Vafeades said that every driver needs to accept that using a phone behind the wheel “placed themselves, their families and all others on the road at risk.”
Fitiris described the meeting as “constructive” and confirmed that the justice ministry, working with police and the road transport department, would take “all necessary steps to curb fatalities”.
The debate comes amid a push to improve road safety, with a recent motion to regulate vehicle dashcams.
The bill was presented to the parliamentary transport committee by Stavros Papadouris, leader of the Ecologists.
He said the aim is to improve safety by creating a clear legal framework for equipment that is already “widely used but unregulated”.
Papadouris said the absence of legislation had become a “crisis”, carrying risks of significant breaches of data protection rules.
The proposal, supported by the transport ministry, police and insurance companies, would allow dashcams to capture key information improving investigations into fatal accidents.
Papadouris acknowledged the complexity of the legislation and said the coordination of all relevant services would be paramount to bring the bill to the plenary.
He argued that clearer evidence from dashcams could help police resolve disputes over traffic incidents more efficiently.
In a recent commentary made to the Cyprus Mail, Vafeades warned that distracted drivers have become a major threat, with pedestrians and cyclists bearing the greatest risk.
Several recent accidents, including one near a primary school and another involving a container truck hitting a tanker on the highway, reflect typical patterns of distraction.
Vafeades stressed that policing alone cannot solve the problem, and that structural changes would be required to physically lower speeds, particularly near schools and areas of heavy pedestrian movement.
Narrower lanes, redesigned crossings and physical barriers are among the solutions being considered by Vafeades’ council.
