Arrest warrant issued for female driver involved in deadly crash (updated)

Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of a 44-year-old woman in connection with a deadly road crash in Nicosia on Thursday.

The woman, who was injured in the crash, was being treated in Nicosia general hospital, police said. The warrant will be executed when doctors give the okay.

A bus driver was killed and 10 more people were injured, one of critical, in the road accident involving a driverless city bus near a busy roundabout in Nicosia.

According to the police, at around 2pm an OSEL city bus travelling on the Nicosia-Anthoupolis highway, near the Archangelos roundabout, collided with the car ahead of it.

Reports said the car had overtaken the bus and had slowed suddenly in front of it, forcing the driver to brake hard.

The bus driver, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was hurled outside, smashing through the windshield and landing on the road where he was run over by the bus.

The driver was later identified as Sofronis Mylonas, 61, a father of five.

Once ejected from the bus, the out-of-control vehicle veered into the metal road divider, smashing through it and crossing into the opposite lane, where it collided successively with four more cars before coming to a halt.

It later transpired that no driver seatbelt had been installed on the bus. Police said bus drivers must also wear seatbelts but it has been suggested that there are exceptions to the law.

Traffic police chief Yiannakis Charalambous said particular buses should have seatbelts installed and drivers are obliged to wear them.

Charalambous said after the end 2007, newly registered trucks and buses must have seatbelts fitted in the front seats.

“As regards the specific bus involved in the crash, it is used for urban routes (and) it carries seated and standing passengers who are not obligated to wear a seatbelt,” Charalambous said. “But in the driver’s seat there must be a seatbelt. Seatbelts should have been fitted.”

OSEL director Andreas Athanasiades told the state broadcaster that the particular type of buses had been imported new and licensed to carry passengers in urban areas.

At the same time, the company had imported bigger buses for intercity and rural routes, which had belts fitted for drivers and passengers.

“The particular buses are licensed to conduct routes with a large number of standing passengers and there is no seatbelt for the driver or the passengers,” Athanasiades said.

He added that since 2010, when they were first licensed, and every year thereafter when they go through annual inspections, no seatbelts were fitted on the buses.

“The particular bus had passed the inspection a few days ago,” he said.

In all, 13 passengers were on board the bus at the time. Six people on board were injured. The other four injured were in the cars with which the bus collided before coming to a halt.