A family in Aydınköy, North Cyprus, has been struck by a second devastating road tragedy after an 85-year-old mother died from injuries sustained when she was hit by a reversing vehicle – nearly seven years after her son and daughter-in-law were killed in a high-speed collision.
Necibe Yılmaz passed away on Sunday, 26 July, following a 12-day battle for life in hospital.
The pensioner was walking along Laleli Street in Aydınköy at around 10am on Tuesday, 14 July, when she was struck by a double-cab vehicle reversing along the road.
According to a statement issued by the TRNC Police Press Office, the vehicle was being driven by 54-year-old Muhittin Bodaloğlu.
Police said Mrs Yılmaz was seriously injured and taken to Dr Burhan Nalbantoğlu State Hospital in Lefkoşa, while the driver was arrested and an investigation launched.
Her death has brought renewed heartbreak to the Yılmaz family, which lost two of its members in another horrific road collision on 2 November 2019.
Mrs Yılmaz’s son, police officer Devrim Yılmaz, 48, and his wife, Seda Suat Yılmaz, 43, were travelling towards Lefkoşa on the Güzelyurt-Lefkoşa main road when their car was struck from behind near Ev Su.
The impact forced the couple’s vehicle off the road and into a parked lorry. Both Devrim Yılmaz, who was a passenger, and his wife, who was driving, died at the scene.
Police evidence subsequently presented in court stated that the driver who hit their vehicle, Mustafa Ürcan, had been under the influence of alcohol and was driving dangerously and at speed.
The court later heard that Ürcan had been travelling at 148 kilometres per hour. He was initially sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison, with the sentence increased to six-and-a-half years following an appeal.
Speaking to Yenidüzen following the deaths of her son and daughter-in-law in 2019, a distraught Mrs Yılmaz said she had raised five children with great care and wanted the circumstances surrounding the collision to be fully investigated.
“They tore my heart out,” she said as she struggled to come to terms with the loss of her son.
The 2019 tragedy also left Devrim and Seda Suat Yılmaz’s two children without their parents.
Now, less than seven years later, the same family has again been plunged into mourning by a road death.
The cruel circumstances of Mrs Yılmaz losing her son and daughter-in-law in one collision, before later becoming the victim of another, have deeply shocked residents of Aydınköy and the wider Güzelyurt community.
