Father and daughter survive after car careers 70m downhill

 

A FATHER, 33, and his daughter 7, miraculously escaped when the pick-up truck they were in went off the road and slid over 70-metres down a steep slope at top speed into a ditch.

Both were being treated in hospital yesterday, the girl at Larnaca and her father in Nicosia due to the seriousness of his injures.

The accident happened near Menoyia on the old Larnaca-Kofinou road on Wednesday afternoon.

The vehicle was being driven by Georgios Charalambous, whose daughter Constantia was in the car with him.

According to police the car spun out of control and went off the road, careering and overturning some 70 metres down a slope into a ditch, where it came to a halt facing the incline it had just traversed.

Charalambous was thrown from the car at some stage during its course down the slope.

But the girl was still in the car when it came to a halt. It is not known whether the girl or her father were wearing seat belts.

It was Charalambous’ 80-year-old grandfather, from Menoyia who had witnessed the accident, and who arrived at the scene first.  “I saw the car doing summersaults and I ran immediately to see what happened,” he told reporters yesterday. “I saw my great grandchild in there crying, she was asking for her dad,” Giorgos Louca said.  “Then I went and found him,” he added. Charalambous was found a few metres away from where the battered pick up had stopped.

Father and daughter were taken to Larnaca General Hospital by their grandfather and a family friend.

The 7-year-old suffered injuries to various parts of her body but is not considered to be in danger by doctors.

The 33-year-old was more seriously injured and was moved to Nicosia General Hospital for further treatment. He suffered head injuries and had his spleen removed.  Kofinou police are investigating the circumstances and cause of the accident, which was kept out of the public eye until yesterday morning.

 

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