TWO men were killed less than 36 hours apart in the latest series of fatal weekend road accidents, police said yesterday. The men’s deaths have brought the total number of dead to 98, one more than the total number of dead for all of last year.
The first accident occurred at 9.40pm on Saturday night on the Nicosia-Limassol highway, when a car being driven by 28-year-old Costas Constantinou and his 21-year-old passenger, both from Nicosia, swerved off course and repeatedly crashed into the left hand road barrier until it came to a standstill. Constantinou was thrown clear of the car in the impact and was critically injured, said police. Both men were rushed to Nicosia general hospital where duty doctors pronounced the 28-year-old dead. His 21-year-old passenger was unharmed and released.
The weekend’s second accident victim was 36-year-old Gamlet Yakubov from Ukraine, who died in Paphos hospital during the early hours of yesterday morning after he had been injured just after midnight the previous day. The accident occurred on the Lemba-Chlorakas road when Yakubov collided with a car being driven by a 36-year-old Paphos man who was carrying two 16-year-old passengers. The Ukrainian, who was a permanent resident of Chlorakas, was rushed to hospital but died just over 24 hours later at 4.15am, said police.
Commenting on the latest road deaths, police spokesman Demetris Demetriou said the authorities were doing everything in their power to clamp down on the alarming statistics.
Police have blamed the large number of road deaths on repeated violations of the Highway Code, including failure to wear a seatbelt or crash helmet, speeding, drink driving, talking on the mobile phone and running red lights.
“We are trying to stamp out the problem. We carry out campaigns, advertise on the television and radios, try and enlighten people and yet some people still don’t listen,” Demetriou told the Cyprus Mail.
He added: “At this rate we fear there will be more deaths before the end of the year. Last year, for instance, there were 12 dead during the month of December alone. Those are the statistics and based on those more road deaths are likely this year, despite the fact that this year we’ve already exceeded the total number of dead for 2003.”
