Crossing-camera fine cost the state €1.2m and has produced 2,500 bookings
Phileleftheros reports that the €85 penalty for stopping on camera-monitored crossings required a costly system upgrade and has caught few drivers.
A traffic-camera fine that MPs introduced for stopping on pedestrian crossings has led to just 2,500 bookings so far this year, Phileleftheros understands. Bringing it in cost the state €1.2 million.
The €85 penalty applies to stopping on a crossing at traffic lights fitted with cameras. It came from a law proposal passed in 2025 and replaced a €300 fine for driving slightly past the crossing. Few drivers actually stop on crossings, which is why bookings are low; most offences recorded at camera-controlled lights are for running a red light.
To apply the change, the contract with the camera-system operator had to be amended, with approvals from the relevant changes-and-claims committees. Once police secured funding of over a million euros, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department instructed the contractor in a letter dated 26 May 2025. Equipment at the crossings had to be moved, and the law went unenforced for about ten months.
A pilot began in late November 2025 and the updated system was rolled out at all camera junctions with pedestrian crossings in early 2026.
Separately, parliament has twice rejected a police plan, costing €100,000, to install lists of people with outstanding camera fines at the crossing points so Turkish Cypriot drivers could be checked. No Turkish Cypriot has yet paid such a fine, because fines can be served only if the driver is stopped at a random roadside check; thousands remain unserved.
Sources
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