A 57-YEAR-OLD pedestrian was killed yesterday morning after he was mowed down by an oncoming car as he tried to cross a Nicosia street, police said.
Andreas Tsaggarides from Ayious Trimithias village was killed at around 7.45am as he tried to cross Ifigenias street in Acropolis. Tsaggarides was the 39th person killed on the road this year.
According to police a 42-year-old Nicosia woman, under circumstances being investigated, ploughed into the 57-year-old, killing him.
Upon impact Tsaggarides was thrown into the air and was hit lightly by a car driven by a 27-year-old woman.
The victim was rushed to Nicosia general hospital where duty doctors pronounced him dead.
The 42-year-old was arrested and remanded for questioning.
Nicosia traffic police is investigating.
Meanwhile in an effort to create more road safety awareness CyTA in co-operation with police yesterday launched a road safety campaign starting on Monday to next Saturday. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness among young people about road safety coinciding with the start of the summer holidays.
It will include among other things a radio campaign, SMS competition, handing out pamphlets in areas frequented by youth and also information and offers at all cytashops in Cyprus.
CyTA chairman Stavros Kremmos said as part of its social responsibility, the organisation did not limit itself to words but had fundamental works to show in this important matter.
Speaking at the news conference Traffic Police Chief Doros Achilleos said road accidents were a problem that deplored all societies and that Cyprus had paid its own price with 86 victims on the island’s roads last year.
He said raising awareness played an important role in increase road conscience and this then extended to the improvement in the level of road safety, an area that the traffic department invested a great deal.
He also said police had stepped up its activities with zero tolerance for the main causes of fatalities and serious accidents such as driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, and not using a helmet, offences mainly committed by youngsters who belonged to high risk groups for their involvement in traffic accidents.
