A NICOSIA Court yesterday heard witness accounts from fellow pupils in the fatal hit-and-run accident that killed a 17-year-old schoolboy on New Year’s Day.
Giorgos Mavrikios had been standing next to a car parked on the pavement on Strovolos Avenue in Tseri at around 3.20am on New Year’s Day with his girlfriend, Agathi Tryfonos, also 17, when a white Mercedes careened into them and drove off.
The driver of the white Mercedes accused of hitting the teenager, Savvas Savva, 28 from Tseri, has pleaded guilty to causing death by negligent driving and abandoning the scene of an accident.
He pleaded not guilty to drink driving, despite twice failing an alcotest later that morning.
Police arrested Savva on the morning of the accident, following a witness statement from the girlfriend who was injured in the crash, and several of Mavrikios’ friends who were also at the scene.
Savva could face up to three years’ imprisonment.
Yesterday, several police officers and Mavrikios’ girlfriend and friends testified against Savva in the trial.
Photographs from the crime scene were also submitted yesterday as evidence.
Police had managed to trace the car back to Savva after pieces of his side mirror found at the scene, were easily identified back to his car because they were only used in the manufacture of two specific models of Mercedes.
One investigator told the court yesterday that they went to Savva’s house later that morning and found him sleeping. They then breathalysed him at his home and found that he had 74mg of alcohol in his blood.
A second alcotest taken later at the station revealed that he had 44mg of alcohol in his blood.
The legal alcohol limit in Cyprus is 22mg.
Another officer told the court that Savva had reportedly told him that had been involved in an accident and that he had fled the scene.
The most dramatic witness accounts, however, came from the friends and girlfriend of the victim who yesterday told identical accounts of what happened that fateful night.
The court had heard how four youths had arrived at Mavrikios’ girlfriend’s house to pick him up.
The driver had parked the car on the pavement.
“When we arrived there,” said the driver “Giorgos was there waiting and he wished us a happy new year. He then went back inside to get his jacket and came back out again, this time with his girlfriend. They then went to the left side of the car, which was in the road, and Giorgos waited for the oncoming car to go by before he opened his door.”
According to the witnesses, the car then swerved towards them and hit Mavrikios throwing him some five to six metres down the road.
The court had also heard how one witness, one of the boys sitting in the car, was the only one who saw the car actually hit the teenager.
The car sped off at high speed.
Agathi Tryfonos also took the stand saying, “When the car came by, I felt something really hard hit my hand. I thought my hand had come off.”
The pupils then looked out in horror and saw their friend lying unconscious in the road with a bloodied face.
The trial continues tomorrow.
