Newsroom
Two separate traffic collisions in the Nicosia district on Saturday left two elderly people dead, in what police described as a troubling day on the island’s roads.
The first incident occurred shortly after 2:30 p.m. on Grigori Afxentiou Street in the village of Pera Oreinis, when a car driven by a 19-year-old man struck 71-year-old Dimitris Skoufaris, who was reportedly crossing the road at the time.
Mr. Skoufaris, a resident of Lakatamia, was taken by ambulance to Nicosia General Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.
According to authorities, the young driver underwent alcohol and drug tests, both of which returned negative results. He was arrested under a court warrant to assist the investigation and later released after providing a statement. Police said he is expected to be summoned to court as inquiries continue.
Just hours earlier, in a separate collision also on Grigori Afxentiou Street, this one in the Agia Varvara area, an 80-year-old woman, Andriana Lefteri, died after the car she was traveling in collided head-on with another vehicle. Police said the crash occurred around 1 p.m., and that Ms. Lefteri sustained fatal injuries from the impact.
Traffic police are continuing parallel investigations into both incidents to determine their precise causes.
The two fatal accidents, which occurred within little more than an hour of each other, have prompted renewed concern about road safety in Cyprus, where elderly pedestrians and passengers remain particularly vulnerable.
