Cypriot man arrested on the motorway for driving 200 km per hour. The same paper records a man having his prison sentence raised from ten to fifteen years on appeal by the prosecution after he shot his nineteen year old son at point blank range in the abdomen following a dispute about use of the family car. It’s a pretty safe country in that unprovoked attacks on strangers or tourists are extremely rare. I wouldn’t worry much about walking home after dark. Violence within families or business partners seem to hit the papers frequently, but perhaps no more than elsewhere. Traffic injuries might be a greater risk. Driving standards are poor. The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office country advisory points this out, citing as evidence a road death rate of 5.4 per 100,000 population, primly comparing it with the UK’s 2.8 per hundred thousand (2016 stats).
Difficult to be as smug as one might like, though, as it appears Canada’s is 6 per 100,000. Unable to resist checking US out of totally unworthy motives. It’s 10.9. Egypt turns out to be 12.8. Some fairly ugly memories of the road from Cairo to Alexandria. Road itself newish and high quality - drivers less so. Saw more fatal accidents in an hour than in the whole rest of my life. Surprised it isn’t massively higher than US. Maybe a question of how much time citizens of various countries spend in cars? Dubious prize goes to Malawi at 35 deaths per 100,000, but many shockingly close contenders.
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