Nearly 3,000 motorcycle, e-scooter and all-terrain vehicle riders nationwide have been caught and fined over the past week for not wearing crash helmets, police said Monday, after more than a year’s sustained crackdown.
A police statement said that almost one in three people caught for the road safety violation were on e-scooters, a relatively new arrival on Greek roads whose use authorities have been striving – with various degrees of success – to regulate.
Between August 24-30, 2,650 drivers and 302 passengers were caught riding without helmets, incurring a €350 fine for motorcyclists and €30 for e-scooter riders.
A total 1,662 drove motorcycles and 899 e-scooters, while 93 were on ATVs.
The highest number of infringements was in the Greater Athens region, followed by the tourist-heavy southern Aegean and Ionian islands. Greece’s most law-abiding region was western Macedonia.
Authorities have massively stepped up policing of Greece’s road safety laws after the conservative government last year adopted stricter fines and penalties for violations including driving without crash helmets or safety belts, running red lights, drink-driving and talking on the phone while driving.
