A YOUNG father-of-two from Liopetri was killed in a road accident over the holiday weekend, bringing this year’s road death toll up to 37.
Petros Michail, 24, lost his life on Saturday night, when he lost control of his high-powered motorbike and crashed into another motorcyclist, who happened to be a relative.
Michail, who wasn’t wearing a helmet, crashed into a car coming from the opposite direction, before being hurled into a parked taxi. He was rushed to Larnaca General Hospital, where despite doctors’ efforts, he passed away shortly after.
Michail was married and father to two children, a two-year-old boy and a girl aged just 11 days old.
The relation, a 45-year-old man, was arrested and questioned on Sunday night.
Michail was the second road fatality in the Ayia Napa district in five days, both motorbike-related.
The community leader of Liopetri, Kyriacos Trisokkas, yesterday expressed his desperation at the unnecessarily large number of local youths that have lost their lives over the past few years in Liopetri.
In the past 14 months, the community has mourned the loss of three youths in road accidents.
Trisokkas called on police to step up police patrols in the area’s communities and expressed his dissatisfaction over the relevant authorities’ failure to install speed bumps in high-risk areas, despite repeatedly promising to do so.
“We are requesting more police patrols; not just in Ayia Napa and Protaras,” said Trisokkas. “These communities are big, Liopetri, Sotira and Avgorou, and they need better policing. As soon as August arrives, we are all in fear that someone will pay. Everyone gets motorbikes, big or small ones, and they are all so young.”
He added: “For years now, the ministers have been promising us speed bumps; they even showed us the areas where they intended to install them, but they never showed up”.
Meanwhile, the deputy Traffic Police Head, Christakis Papadopoulos, yesterday announced that 1,091 motorists had been reported over the holiday weekend; this is excluding 148 reports for drivers caught drink driving.
“We had 11 serious accidents over the three-day holiday, with 12 seriously injured and six less serious accidents with seven slightly injured,” Papadopoulos explained.
