Danger superfluous and unjust

We’ve heard it before, that cameras on our streets will force Greek drivers to improve their behavior, reducing the number of deaths and injuries that make our roads among the most dangerous in the European Union. In the past, though, the cameras turned out to be useless, and their handling was inadequate or nonexistent. Drivers ignored them and continued to violate the traffic code. Whether showing off, indifferent to our own and others’ safety, whether accepting fatalistically that the high number of dead and injured is an unavoidable tax for an unruly nation, whether seduced by political charlatans, the result is that last year we recorded 60 deaths per million inhabitants, with the EU average at 46. Improving infrastructure and imposing better vehicle maintenance help up to a point. What is needed is coordination between state services, credible policing and the acquiescence of citizens.

Yesterday, three ministries and the Regional Authority of Attica unveiled their plan for a new network of cameras in Athens and the establishment of a single information system, under the management of a department of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation. The cameras will record violations of the speed limit, of traffic lights and of pedestrian crossings. They will record drivers using telephones, as well as those not wearing seat belts or helmets. The network will be awarded, through open tender in mid-2025, to a private company, which will fund the purchase and maintenance of the cameras. The information side of the network will be ready in the same year. Fines that remain unpaid will be sent to the state revenue service for collection.

Perhaps this time we may see results. If the system is implemented as described on Thursday, procedures will be simplified, the human factor will be removed from the process (through automation), and the responsibilities of various ministries and services will be clarified. But perhaps the most important factor is that very many citizens are exasperated by the impunity enjoyed by scofflaws, which deepens the sense that we do not live under the rule of law, that we are continually exposed to danger that is superfluous and unjust.