Tough laws to punish road hogs
In a bid to curb Greece’s spike in traffic accidents, the Transport Ministry is revising road rules that will become tougher on drivers running red lights and ignoring stop signs, ministry sources said yesterday. The revised highway code, expected to be ready for implementation in September, will be finalized after talks are held with ministries and relevant parties, such as drivers’ associations. Drivers will incur higher fines for traffic infringements that are considered dangerous and capable of causing a fatal accident, such as driving while talking on a mobile phone. But the government will go easier on less dangerous infringements, such as illegally parking on sidewalks. The ministry is trying to reduce the large number of outstanding court cases for illegal parking created by the current law. Greece, where traffic accidents claim 1,500 lives every year, has one of the highest rates of road deaths in the European Union.
