Greece’s government has announced plans to install 1,388 cameras across the country by 2026 in order to fight road accidents that lead to hundreds of deaths every year.
In 2023, 621 people lost their lives in traffic accidents across Greece. The government’s new initiative aims to reduce the number of deaths and serious injuries by 50 percent by 2030.
The initial plan includes the installation of 388 cameras in Attica, the region surrounding Athens, by the summer of 2025, focusing on the busiest roads and high-risk junctions. The tendering process for the cameras to be installed in Attica has already been completed, and the plan is estimated to cost around 18.8 million euros ($19.88 million), funded partly by the European Union.
“Unfortunately, human resources cannot respond to all criminal behavior on the roads. The solution (to reduce accidents) lies in intelligent policing and the use of new technological tools, such as cameras,” said Michalis Chrisochoidis, Greece’s Minister of Citizen Protection and Police, on November 28th during a presentation of the government’s plan.
The additional 1,000 cameras will be installed at a later stage across the country, starting in the region around Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city.
How will the new cameras work?
The cameras will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and will be used to monitor speeding, red light and crosswalk parking violations, as well as the use of phones while driving. Helmet and seat belt wearing will also be monitored.
Data will immediately be forwarded to the police for verification, and if an offense is confirmed, motorists will receive an SMS.
The new system will also include a single platform that will allow fines to be sent directly to offenders’ mobile phones, with the option of digital submissions for objections to fines.
Dimitris Papastergiou, Minister of Digital Governance, in a recent interview, told SKAI TV that “the cameras [will] cover a gap that exists,and it is shameful for a state with brand new motorways that there are two people killed every day in our country—not on the motorways but in the cities.”
Greece has some of the most dangerous roads in Europe
According to ELSTAT, the Hellenic Statistical Authority, and Hellenic Police data, Greece ranks 23rd among 27 European countries in terms of road fatalities. Specifically, there are 60 deaths for every one million citizens, while the EU average is 46 deaths per one million people.
Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, and Croatia are the four countries that rank worse than Greece, while Sweden and Denmark have the safest roads, with 22 and 27 deaths per one million people, respectively.
In 2023, police registered 11,201 road accidents. This was up by 6.8 percent compared to the same period in 2022. Fatalities, however, saw a 5 percent drop, with 621 deaths recorded in 2023. This was down from 654 in 2022. To put things into perspective, Greece has a population of about 10.3 million.
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