Husband-to-be killed in car crash

A HUSBAND-to-be was killed just weeks before his planned wedding when his car smashed headon into a lorry.

Sales representative Çağar Mintaş, 32, was on the wrong side of the road between Ercan airport and İskele when he collided with the HGV being driven by Dzhelal Mehmet, 54, police said.

Both vehicles left the road due to the impact, between Serdarlı and Yeniceköy at 3.30pm on Monday, and skidded some 200 metres through a field before coming to a halt.

Mr Mintaş was pronounced dead at the scene and was laid to rest at Lefkoşa cemetery on Wednesday.

Elsewhere on the roads, three crewmembers of an ambulance and the driver of another vehicle were injured in a collision on the road between Lefkoşa and Güzelyurt at around 5am on Sunday.

The crash was said to have occurred when Omar Elshargawy tried to overtake the Güzelyurt Health Centre ambulance, but pulled in without realising the emergency vehicle was still alongside him, sending them both into the crash barriers.

Mr Elshargawy was taken to Cengiz Topel Hospital while ambulance driver Mahmut Hamdi, along with nurses Cengiz Elyeli and Ayfer İnik Taşçı, were treated at Lefkoşa State Hospital. None was reported to have been seriously hurt.

The TRNC Midwives’ and Nurses’ Union issued a statement following the crash saying: “We faced what we feared most, which was to see someone we know well or a family member in a bad way during our emergency shift . . . We are happy, however, that no-one lost their life.”

Meanwhile, an out-of-control car careered into a petrol station and crashed into an empty pump before coming to a halt in front of its minimarket.

The accident happened after a driver, who was not named by police, lost control of the car near Lefkosa’s Girne Gate junction at 10.30am on Monday. The driver and a passenger were treated in Lefkoşa State Hospital but later discharged.