In a post last September we itemised the changes in the new Highway Code which aim to improve driver discipline and reduce the number of fatalities on Greek roads. Just how effective the new measures will be in reducing accidents remains to be seen, especially locally. While according to the president of the Heraklion-based Voluntary Association for the Prevention of Road Accidents, Giannis Lionakis, Crete had its best ever year for road accidents in 2025, the Nomos of Chania remains responsible for 35% of accidents on the island. Moreover reports of a drunken driver crashing into parked cars waiting to collect children from a Chania primary school yesterday (25th January) suggest that much work needs to be done on changing the local driving culture.
Speeding is generally found to be the most common transgression and it is also the one most likely to result in accidents, says an article on the motoring website www.carandmotor.gr: “One of the offences which lies at the centre of the new strategy is exceeding the speed limit, one of the most severe and most frequent infractions, which is immediately associated with road accidents, especially in populated areas with increased traffic and the presence of vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, users of electric scooters and cyclists.”
For this reason, as announced in September, new speed limits are being enforced from 1st January. The main change is a blanket 30 km/h limit on urban streets, except where otherwise specified, but there are also higher limits for different types of urban roads. Again according to Car and Motor: “Exceptions are one-way streets with at least two lanes as well as two-way streets with two lanes in each direction and a central divider, where the maximum permitted speed is 50 km/h.” On highways there are different speed limits for different categories of vehicle. The accompanying tables give details of how the new limits are to be applied, together with the fines imposed for infractions.
The problem of enforcement
As with all legislation, the effectiveness of the new limits depend on the rigour with which they are enforced, but also how they are applied in real world conditions. A blanket speed limit is easily applied in an urban environment, but less so in the settlements of the Cretan countryside, where signs are often scarce and the intended limit may not be clear. Car and Motor points out that there is provision for this in the legislation: “Article 24 of the code is quite clear: the general speed limit only applies if there is no sign showing a different speed. The limit shown on signs erected by the relevant municipality or region always supersedes the general limit for built-up areas.”
However such signage as there is is not always consistent. Entering Kolymbari from the direction of the VOAK, there is a speed limit sign of 50 km/h, which is briefly reduced to 40 km/h as the road passes the school. This would seem to be confirmed by the exit from Spilia towards Kolymbari, where the village limit of 40 km/h is clearly replaced with a sign showing 50 km /h. On the other hand, coming down into Kolymbari from Afrata there is no sign at all, which might lead one to suppose that the general limit of 30 km/h applies. The lack of any signage on the old National Road east towards Tavronitis would suggest that if the Kolymbari limit is in fact 50 km/h, it applies all the way towards Platanias, where illuminated signs conveniently warn one if one is exceeding the speed limit. No doubt only an encounter with a police patrol might serve to clarify any uncertainties, at which point it might be too late to avoid a fine or the loss of one’s licence. (Exceeding the speed limit by upwards of 20 km/h will get you a fine and a 20-day licence suspension.)
The Porsche driver convicted
None of this is intended to detract from the real seriousness of bad driver behaviour and the disastrous effects which it can have on people’s lives. Readers may remember the fatal accident caused by an intoxicated driver on the Souda road in Chania a year ago, when a Porsche SUV collided with a small Suzuki saloon and killed the latter’s 22-year-old driver, in an incident which caused a radical overhaul of the Chania Traffic Police department and may have been part of the impetus for the new legislation. The prosecution of the Porsche driver, which has just come to court, reveals an incident which seems to have combined all the worst possible infractions of traffic legislation rolled into one, exacerbated by a dose of police negligence.
The Porsche driver had been stopped by a police patrol and found to be well over the drink drive limit, but instead of arresting him and impounding the car as the law requires, the police let him go on his way, with the car being driven by a companion. Later in the evening, having seized the keys from his friend he was on the road again, apparently under the influence of both alcohol and anti-depressive drugs, when the fatal accident happened.
At the trial which took place this week in Chania, the court found him guilty on three charges:
— Dangerous driving due to the consumption of alcohol and due to exceeding the speed limit in a built-up area by 40 km/h
— Driving under the influence of alcohol despite having been stopped for the same offence earlier, and under the influence of drugs which according to their user instructions could affect the ability to drive.
— Driving while prohibited from doing so, as his licence had been suspended three months previously.
The court ignored the defence’s plea for mitigating circumstances which included the driver’s expressions of contrition after the accident and, somewhat bizarrely, the fact that the police failed to arrest him when he was first stopped. He was sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment and a fine of €10,000, the prosecution having initially demanded a sentence of 30 years. A significant fact which came out during the court case was that both drivers were speeding. According to an expert witness called by the accused, the Porsche was travelling at 106 km/h and the Suzuki at 89 km/h. Since the charge stated that the accused was travelling at 40 km/h over the limit, it must be assumed that the limit was 60 km/h on that stretch of road.
(Haniotika Nea, 22/01/26)