Two conscripts killed in Troodos crash

TWO 19-year-old conscripts were killed yesterday in a car crash on the Nicosia-Troodos road, bringing the death toll this year to five in just six days.

The two, Demetris Karatzias and Paris Panayiotou, both from Nicosia, were killed instantly in the crash, while a 50-year-old and his wife, who were also involved in the accident, were taken to Nicosia General Hospital with serious injuries. Both the driver Karatzias, and Panayiotou, who was a passenger, were conscripts in the National Guard.
According to police investigations, the accident occurred at around 11.30pm on Thursday night when, under reasons still being investigated, Karatzias lost control of the car he was driving and slammed into a side railing before his car spun out of control and crashed into a vehicle being driven by the 50-year-old and his wife.

In a separate accident earlier on Thursday, a father and a daughter were seriously injured in a car crash on the Alambra-Lympia road in the Nicosia district. Police said a 63-year-old man crashed into an articulated lorry parked illegally on the side of the road. Both the man and his 29-year-old daughter, who was a passenger in the car, were seriously injured and taken to Larnaca General Hospital were they were kept in for observation.
The 57-year-old owner of the articulated lorry has been arrested and charged.

The two conscripts killed on Thursday have taken the road death toll in 2006 to five. On January 2 this year, Kyriacos Gregoriou, 45, from Dali, and Evanthis Christodoulou, 67, from Paphos, were both killed in unrelated traffic accidents, while the following day 42-year-old British national Stephen Maton was killed on the roads in Paphos.

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