Police plea to Easter drivers

TRAFFIC Police director Andreas Paphitis yesterday urged drivers over the long Easter weekend to make sure they respect traffic laws. “Drivers should watch their speed, wear their seatbelts and, of course, avoid alcohol. In addition, we urge all motorcyclists to wear their crash helmets.”
The plea to exercise more care follows a nightmare 48 hours, which saw five people killed on the roads.

The latest fatalities bring the number of road deaths to 31 since the beginning of the year.
In the last accident on Monday evening, five-year-old Theopisti Harilaou was hit by a car driven by a 31-year-old man at 7.30 pm on the outskirts of Paphos. The accident happened as she chased a ball out of her back yard onto Eleftheria Avenue in Chlorakas village. She was rushed to Paphos General Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

An autopsy was carried out yesterday at the hospital by state coroner Panicos Stavrianos.
The driver was arrested and taken away for questioning, with Paphos police still investigating the cause of the accident.

Paphitis said the state had failed in its mission to prevent fatal accidents, even though the number of accidents involving serious and light injuries had been cut by 40 per cent compared to last year.

“Unfortunately we failed with fatal accidents,” he said.

Paphitis assured, however, that police were not going to give up on efforts to cut road deaths.
“I assure you that we won’t put our hands up and the police efforts will continue until they bear fruit,” he added.

“We wish drivers over the holiday weekend safe trips so that they can have a happy Easter not only this year, but also in the many years to come.”