Seatbelts would have saved new year’s dead

JUST three days into the new year yesterday and already three people had died in traffic accidents.

Two of the dead could have been saved if they had been wearing their seatbelts, police said.

Andreas Thoma, 30, from Larnaca, and 45-year-old Paphos resident Tryfonas Ioannides, were killed in the early hours of New Year’s Day in a head-on collision on the Ayios Georgios to Mamonia road.

And Tryfonas Ioannides, 85, died just after midnight yesterday from injuries suffered in a traffic accident in the Nicosia suburb of Engomi on the afternoon of January 1.

A 23-year-old woman injured in the same accident remains in serious condition.

The Paphos accident was a repeat of New Year’s Day, 2009 when two people again lost their lives.

“Unfortunately both drivers had not been wearing their seatbelts,” said traffic police chief Demetris Demetriou.

Demetriou was adamant that both men would be alive today if they had buckled up.

“Maybe there would have been some light injuries but these people would not have lost their lives,” Demetriou told state broadcaster CyBC. “What’s happening in Cyprus is terrible.”

Demetriou said some 17 people are killed each year because they were not wearing their seatbelts.

He warned that police would be relentless this year when it came to seatbelts – front and rear.

“No tolerance whatsoever. It is a matter of life and death. You cannot have an accident with damage worth €500 and a person lose their life. For God’s sake,” the traffic chief said, adding that the force will continue and intensify efforts to prevent fatal road accidents.

Over the holidays, police carried out 3,168 checks and arrested 140 drivers for drink driving.

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The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.