New Year driver found guilty of manslaughter appeals ruling

The driver of a twin-cabin pickup truck, who was found guilty of manslaughter on July 2, after his actions on the road were found to have caused the New Year accident that killed four people, has appealed the ruling.

Apart from manslaughter, the court found the accused guilty of speeding.

Defence lawyer Lambros Pieri, while advocating for mitigation on Monday, announced that he had appealed the ruling.

As mitigation of sentence factors, Pieri said inter alia that his client had not consumed alcohol or used drugs.

Pieri said the accused, who had been in Cyprus for 15 years, had not violated any traffic laws and had sincerely regretted causing the accident, which he admitted to right from the beginning.

The sentence will be announced at the end of the month.

Pieri asked that the penalties not be consecutive.

Politis reported that the appeal is based on a series of reasons, one of which is the question whether or not the accused had braked and if the ABS system would leave marks.

Pieri said it had also identified contradictions in testimonies and that the court had not taken into account any of the scientific articles presented by the defence.

During the trial, the accused had admitted to reckless and dangerous driving and to jumping a red light.

The accident occurred at the intersection of Ayia Anastasia and Yiannis Kranidiotis street, near Polemidia, Limassol.

The four victims of the fatal crash were 27-year-old Vathoula Georgiou, 17-year-old Nikolas Georgiou, their 73-year-old grandfather Nikolas Zavrou and 74-year-old grandmother Evanthia Georgiou.

Twenty-seven-year-old Georgiou was driving her grandparents back home after the New Year, when having almost completed a right turn at the intersection her vehicle was struck by the 44-year-old.

The victims died upon impact while the fire service had to be called to remove them from the vehicle.

The court heard that the 44-year-old was driving at a speed twice the 50km/hour limit.

It said in its ruling that his vehicle “acted as a bullet that had been released from the gun and was moving towards its target, namely any other vehicle which, at that particular moment, was legally turning right to enter Ayia Anastasia street, as was the vehicle of the victims.”