Travelers returning from their Easter holidays should be prepared to experience heavy traffic. The police reported that there was a 1.9% increase in traffic from last year.
Specifically, Traffic on the Athens – Lamia highway was up 2.8% and on the Athens –Corinth highway by 1.1%. The greatest increase was in Thessaloniki, where a 39.4% increase in traffic was noted. Most from Thessaloniki headed to Halkidiki, to take advantage of the warm weather.
The situation at the ports is similar, with the Coast Guard reporting that 82,551 passengers departed from Piraeus, 47,506 from the Saronic Gulf, 37,701 from the port of Rafina and 10,472 from Lavrio.
Police reports 102 violations and 111 arrests over fireworks
The police reported that it conducted 1,359 inspections in the period leading up to Easter, which lead to 111 arrests. As a result they confiscated 351 flare guns, 82,951 fireworks, 1,655 flares, 74,680 firecrackers and 208 improvised fireworks.
Unfortunately this year there was a great number of injuries attributed to fire works. A 22-year-old Albanian was seriously injured by a improvised firework in Eretria of Evia, when it went off in his hands. A 36-year-old Albanian man and 32-year-old Romanian woman who where with the 22-year-old were arrested by the police for questioning.
In Nea Styra of Evia the police arrested a 16-year-old boy, who allegedly threw a firework that injured a 15-year-old girl during the procession of the Epitaph on Thursday. The boy’s 41-year-old mother was arrested for neglect. On the island of Chios a 47-year-old man was lightly injured in the hand when he tried to remove a firework that landed near him. The most serious injury was reported in Phoenicia Pylias, where a 19-year-old man lost his right hand’s four fingers from a firework explosion.
