Police are investigating how and why a 79-year-old man who was being towed by a car while sitting in his faulty electric wheelchair, died.
The man, who lived in Ayioi Trimithias, was injured on September 24 in his village and died on September 27 in the Nicosia general hospital ICU and the police found out on Tuesday through posts on social media and news websites.
The police immediately began investigating.
So far, it appears the 79-year-old’s wheelchair had been tied to the vehicle with straps and was being towed, when it tipped over in Makarios III avenue in Ayioi Trimithias.
Police located the 72-year-old driver of the car, who was arrested on Wednesday, interrogated and released.
Anyone who can provide information regarding the accident can contact the police or call the citizen’s line on 1460.
Police are continuing investigations.
EnErgo movement issued a statement, naming the victim as Michalis Kyriakou and expressing “abhorrence” over the way the government is addressing social issues, especially in the case of those who are homeless, disabled or living in poverty.
The movement explains that Kyriakou, who had been a 1974 prisoner of war, had requested that his faulty wheelchair be replaced and the president of the Republic himself had promised he would. However, five months passed and no new wheelchair had arrived. The faulty one, EnErgo said, finally cost him his life.
“In a country of 900,000 we have 150,000 living under the poverty line, the deputy welfare minister is nowhere to be seen and her deputy ministry is incapable of handling the requests of Cypriots in need. The finance minister is completely unreal and is telling us that the measures against high costs have been abolished because benefits and CoLA have supposedly increased, disregarding the fact that most people are barely making ends meet,” it said.
EnErgo said the death of Kyriakou was the straw that broke the camel’s back and that if the government can’t cope, it should step down.
