By a Staff Reporter
THREE people were killed when a speeding car careered through a safety barrier and hit an oncoming vehicle in downtown Nicosia early on Sunday morning.
The Honda Integra was driven by Costas Marathovouniotis, 25, an electrician from Strovolos, and had one passenger, Ioannis Koupepides, a 23 year-old police constable. At 4.50am, Marathovouniotis lost control of the car as he was driving down Griva Digenis Avenue towards Santa Rosa Avenue. The car smashed the barrier into the oncoming lane, where it crashed into a Honda CRV driven by beautician Christiana Christophidou, 27 from Ayioi Trimithias.
The impact was so violent that the cars were reduced to a mass of crumpled metal and the victims had to be cut out. All three were taken to Nicosia General Hospital, but were declared dead on arrival.
Marathovouniotis and Koupepides were wearing seatbelts, but Christophidou was not.
Police say that for the car to have broken through the barrier, it must have been going extremely fast. They are still investigating the exact circumstances of the crash. The Integra’s speedometer was jammed on 170 km/h after the crash and reports said the car had been weaving through traffic.
Police are also investigating whether or not the barrier was too low to prevent such a collision.
The collision is the second multiple fatality on the roads in six days after two Britons and a local man were killed on the Paphos to Polis road last Monday.
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.
