A 19-year-old driver who fled a police check on the Limassol-Nicosia highway tested positive for drugs after losing control of his vehicle and crashing in the early hours of Friday, police said.
Officers on patrol near the Germasogeia roundabout signalled the driver to stop shortly before midnight after spotting him using his mobile phone at the wheel.
He ignored the signal and drove on, then turned against the flow of traffic at the next roundabout before losing control entirely. The vehicle mounted a roundabout, struck a metal road sign, continued onto a pavement and hit a garden fence, where it came to rest on its side.
Firefighters extracted the driver from the wreckage. A 17-year-old passenger was also in the car. Both were taken to hospital by ambulance; the 17-year-old was treated and discharged, while the 19-year-old was admitted. His condition is not life-threatening.
A preliminary drug test on the 19-year-old returned a positive result.
Limassol traffic police are investigating reckless and dangerous driving, failure to comply with a police signal, drug driving, and causing a road collision.
