Woman jailed after proclaiming innocence in biker’s death

An elderly woman has been ordered to spend over one year in prison for the death of an army airplane engineer, whose motorcycle collided with a car driven by the defendant who maintained her innocence throughout the trial.

A Paphos district court judge this week sentenced a 74-year-old woman to 15 months behind bars after she was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and reckless driving in connection with the death of local motorcycle enthusiast Haris Drousiotis back in 2018.

Drousiotis, a father of a young boy, was riding his motorcycle on May 27 before noon along the Nikokleia-Fasoula main road, when he collided head on with an oncoming vehicle driven by an elderly woman. He succumbed to multiple trauma injuries hours later while the driver and her husband also suffered serious injuries.

The elderly woman maintained her innocence throughout the trial, while the judge pointed out that she failed to express remorse.

But her lawyer argued in court that his client had realized the seriousness of the offense, prompting the judge to take the argument into consideration.

The exact details were not fully known but local reports said speeding was involved and that the victim had been wearing proper ride gear including a helmet.

Drousiotis was an aircraft engineer at the Andreas Papandreou military air base. Media reports said he was joining other friends and fellow bikers on the way to celebrate the Orthodox Pentecost holiday when the collision took place.

The judge also ordered that the driver’s license of the woman be suspended for 24 months while 8 penalty points were also imposed on her record.