Grief, anger after student is killed by ‘drunk’ driver
UNIVERSITY students took to the streets following the death of one of their friends who was hit by a “drunk” driver on the Gemikonağı-Güzelyurt main road near Cengizköy last Friday night.
Umair Ahmad, 21, was riding on his takeaway delivery motorcycle when he was hit head-on at around 11pm by a Mercedes driven by Muhammet Ünsal Yılmaz, also 21, which had crossed into the opposite lane. Mr Ahmad died at the scene, police said.
Following the news of Mr Ahmad’s death, his friends rushed to the scene and protested against the “late arrival” of a vehicle to take away his body, and the “dark and damaged” state of the road, it was reported.
Despite the “extensive security
measures taken by the police” at the scene, the students managed to reach the spot where the accident took place.
There were “tense moments” between the police and the students, who had arrived either in their own cars, by hitchhiking, or with taxis, when they tried to “stop the flow of traffic by blocking the road”.
Police officers tried to calm down the group, who were “infuriated” over the fact that the body of their friend was “left at the scene for hours”.
Reports said that there was only one hearse available at the time for the Güzelyurt and Lefke region, and that it had arrived late because it had already been sent to collect a deceased person from the Kalkanlı
Care Home (see page 5).
After Mr Ahmad’s body was collected, the students tried to “block the road again” but were prevented from doing so by police. The friends of Mr Ahmad instead marched from Cengizköy to Gemikonağı in protest.
COURT
Meanwhile Mr Yılmaz was brought to court on Saturday charged with causing the death of Mr Ahmad, who was said to have come to the TRNC from Pakistan to study and was also working as a delivery rider to “earn some pocket money”.
Mr Yılmaz’s relatives tried to obstruct members of the press from taking photographs of him outside Lefkoşa District Court.
Police Sergeant Ahmet Yurt testified to the court that there was 175mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in Mr Yılmaz’s body – more than three times the 50mg legal limit – while he was travelling towards Güzelyurt.
Sergeant Yurt stated that as a result of his “carelessness”, the suspect crossed over to the right side of the road and hit Mr Ahmad’s motorcycle “head on” as he was coming from the opposite direction.
Emphasising that the suspect was “arrested in the act”, Sergeant Yurt said that an investigation into the incident had been launched, including CCTV footage from the scene, eyewitness statements, and the results of a post-mortem.
The police officer requested that Mr Yılmaz be remanded in custody for three days “so that the investigation can be conducted properly”, a request granted by Judge Şevket Gazi.