43% of motorcyclists who died in Cyprus in 2021 did not wear a helmet

In 2021, 43% of motorcyclists and moped drivers who died in traffic accidents in Cyprus, did not wear a helmet, a European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) report showed.

The report was prepared as part of the Road Safety PIN (Performance Index) programme. It found that Cyprus has the second-highest percentage of deaths of motorcyclists and moped drivers who died without wearing a helmet, among the 12 countries that provided relevant data. The highest was in Greece.

Over the last decade, the report says, the number of road deaths of motorcyclists and mopeds in the E.U. has decreased by 25%, from 5,216 deaths in 2011 to 3,891 in 2021, around 90% of whom were men.

The number of all other road deaths fell by 33% over the same period.

In Cyprus, during this period, road deaths of motorcyclists and mopeds decreased by 17% (from 17 in 2011 to 14 in 2021).

Recommendations

Among other recommendations, the report calls for an improvement in the enforcement of helmet-wearing.

It is also recommended that the E.U. and national governments promote a consumer information scheme on the safety of helmets and other protective equipment such as airbag jackets.

According to the report, changes to E.U. licensing requirements in 2013 may have contributed to the lower number of deaths by creating a series of stages to acquire a full license for the largest and most powerful motorcycles.

Furthermore, the report suggests that governments develop better enforcement of speed limits applying to motorcyclists in order to allow for the fact that motorcyclists cover their faces with helmets so they cannot be identified by authorities.

Jenny Carson, manager of ETSC’s Road Safety Performance Index programme commented that “in recent years motorcyclists have been less of a focus in road safety,” adding that “there are several smart and straightforward measures that can be taken to reduce the unacceptable number of deaths every year.”

Some, he added, “are obvious such as not allowing children aged 14 to ride motorcycles. Others require a bit of innovation such as ensuring that motorcyclists can be sanctioned for exceeding the speed limit like any other road user.”

“We also need to pay close attention to growing trends such as the number of young people, mostly men, now delivering hot food in our cities on motorcycles, working under time pressure on poorly maintained vehicles, while being distracted by app-based tools,” he concluded.

The 44th report (PIN Flash Report 44) presents the data in the 27 member states of the European Union, as well as in Switzerland, Israel, Norway, Serbia and the United Kingdom, regarding the road deaths of motorcyclists and mopeds.