As we reported a week ago the Prime Minister, on a visit to Rethymnon, made an impassioned plea for better road safety in Crete. The government can only do so much, he said, it is up to local authorities to help achieve a change in the culture so that lives are not needlessly lost: “Let me make an appeal to you,” he said. “We will do what should be done, but it is something which needs to become common property for us all, especially here in Crete where we have a tendency to be more ‘unruly’. And it relates particularly – I’m looking at the mayors here – to the mountainous areas where, especially in small villages, young kids take cars, tractors, motorbikes. Put some effort into it, for God’s sake. We can’t do everything by ourselves as the central power.”

While he was talking specifically about head injuries from motorcyclists not wearing helmets, the wider picture is one that no-one can dispute. According to a preliminary report for the year 2023 by the EU’s Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport: “Around 20,400 people were killed in road crashes in the EU last year, a small 1% decrease on 2022. Despite some progress since the baseline year of 2019, few Member States are on track to meet the [EU] target of halving the number of road deaths by 2030.”

Greece is no exception, showing an improvement of only 7 per cent since 2019. Moreover, the fatality rate from road accidents in Greece is higher than the European average. An independent region-by-region analysis published in Haniotika Nea on 6^th December stated the national figure to be 58.4 fatalities per million inhabitants for 2023, as against the EU average of 46. While some way behind the nations with the worst record (Bulgaria at 82 and Romania at 81 deaths per million) it is sufficiently high to be a cause for concern, and Crete is near the top of the national scale. While the number of all road accidents in Crete is proportionately the second lowest in the country (229.3 per million inhabitants against the national figure of 979 per million), the proportion of accidents which are fatal is the second highest (28% against the national figure of 6%).

We have not seen any analysis of why the accidents which occur in Crete are particularly likely to be fatal, but from anecdotal evidence there would seem to be two main reasons. The first is that the average age of the vehicle stock on Cretan roads is quite high. Photos of fatal crashes published in Haniotika Nea often show older vehicles which are probably less crash-resistant than the most modern ones, and lack safety features such as airbags. And the second is clearly driver behaviour, with speeding and reckless overtaking featuring high on the list, especially on the VOAK, and driving under the influence of alcohol also being commonplace. The failure to wear seatbelts is undoubtedly another factor.

A fatal accident in Chania
All this was brought dramatically into focus on Saturday 11^th January, when a fatal accident occurred on the Souda road in Chania, which caused nationwide concern, and proved to have some unexpected consequences for the Chania police. At 3.15 in the morning, a Porsche SUV collided head-on with a small white hatchback on the Leoforo Karamanlis. The smaller car was crushed to the extent that it took 6 firemen to cut free the 22-year-old driver, who was found to be dead.

The Porsche was badly damaged but the 45-year-old driver was uninjured. It was subsequently revealed that although he had had his licence revoked for a previous offence, he had been driving erratically around Chania earlier under the influence of drink and what were described as “anti-psychotic” drugs. Around 11.00 pm a bystander had phoned the police from Dikastirion Square to report his erratic driving, and 37 minutes later he was stopped by a police patrol and breathalysed, and found to have a blood alcohol level of 1.3 mg/litre – the legal limit in Greece is 0.5 mg/litre. The police did not arrest him on the spot, as the law requires, but gave the keys to his 25-year-old companion, who was sober, and let them go on their way.

According to Tovima.gr, the woman and another friend who was with them tried to convince the driver that they should take him home but leave the car at the Agora, where it could be picked up the next day. However, this led to a dispute and they reluctantly drove him home and left him there. It was after this that he took to the road again and the fatal accident occurred in the early morning.

The event was covered by the media nationwide and the government swiftly reacted. On the orders of the Prime Minister the head of the Chania police department was suspended, and an inquiry was instituted into why the patrolmen had failed to arrest the driver when he was nearly three times over the legal limit. The Chania police chief was replaced by a senior officer from Athens and the head of the local Traffic Police was moved to the main police department (according to some reports at her own request), to be replaced by another officer from Heraklion with 15 years’ experience in the Traffic Police. Taken before the public prosecutor in Chania, the Porsche driver, described in the media as a well-known local businessman, expressed deep contrition, offering his apologies both to the family of the victim and to his own family, saying that he was “ready to face the consequences of his actions”.

Apart from being a demonstration of the fatal effects of mixing alcohol with drugs, the circumstances of the accident suggest a culture of impunity among local drivers, who do not take the rules seriously and when caught in an offence will try to pull strings to evade punishment. It is significant that the victim’s family has called for the mobile phones of the patrolmen to be released for investigation – some press reports have suggested that the failure to arrest in such circumstances is common, either because police offices are unwilling to incur the bureaucracy involved, or because they are being “leaned on” by influential contacts of the perpetrator.

Following the accident, according to Ekathimerini, “The Hania Prosecutor’s Office denied claims that police were directed not to arrest drunk drivers after a fatal crash in Crete involving a previously intoxicated motorist. ‘No directive, written or verbal, has been issued to police to avoid arresting offenders for drunk driving,’ the office said Monday.”

Achieving a culture change in future drivers
Against this background it is encouraging to know that the problem has been acknowledged in some quarters and steps are being take to change the local driving culture, which must inevitably be a long-term process. As reported in Haniotika Nea, the General Lykeio of Alikianos has been hosting road safety expert Thanasis Hountras to lecture pupils on the subject of “Road safety and accident prevention”.

A graduate of the Department of Physical Education and Sport Science at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Mr Hountras has been involved in motorcycle sports for 23 years, winning three championships and gaining awards in Greece and abroad. He was the first Greek to take part in the off-road endurance event, the Dakar Rally. Mr Hountras has been involved in road safety since 1997, and in 1998 founded his own Safe Driving School. In 2017 he became the first Motor Sports Trainer in Greece, recognised by the Education ministry’s General Secretariat of Sports. As a special adviser on road safety he has participated in numerous awareness-raising activities throughout Greece and has demonstrated the importance of correct driving behaviour and the prevention of accidents, especially amongst young people.

The aim of the event was to inform and raise the pupils’ awareness as regards their responsibility as future drivers, so as to create a new culture of behaviour which will reduce loss of life and injuries as well as material damage on the road. According to an announcement by the school, Mr Hountras’s lecture to the pupils focussed on:
– the seriousness of road accidents;
– his own experience of a serious road accident;
– the development of the human brain in relation to the development of technology;
– the way the human brain and nervous system function during driving;
– the driver’s preparedness and capacity to recognise and avoid danger on the road;
– the effects of alcohol and age on drivers and their reaction time;
– the mistaken search for “recognition” from our social environment and “self-recognition” through dangerous driving,
– the feeling of complacency which the driver achieves when they succeed in driving dangerously and try to constantly exceed their limits;
– practical advice for how pupils as passengers can avoid dangerous drivers;
– dealing with anxiety while driving;
– statistical data on road accidents, their frequency, loss of human life, the relationship between occupation and driving behaviour and the likelihood of being involved in an accident, etc.

The school has conducted a series of events on the prevention of road accidents in collaboration with the Traffic Police, the Orthopaedic Department of Chania Hospital, the Psychologists’ Association of the Nomos of Chania and others. “We are convinced that such initiatives are of vital importance for the formation of responsible and active citizens and the protection of human life,” the school says.

Sources
EU Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport: https://transport.ec.europa.eu/news-events/news/20400-lives-lost-eu-road-crashes-last-year-2024-10-10_en
To Vima: https://www.tovima.gr/2025/01/17/society/troxaio-sta-xania-epi-4-ores-methysmenos-kai-me-antipsyxosika-o-45xronos-anelave-i-nea-dioikitria/
Ekathimerini: https://www.ekathimerini.com/news/1258464/prosecutor-denies-order-to-avoid-drunk-driver-arrest-in-crete-crash/
Haniotika Nea, 20/01/25