The driver of a twin-cabin pickup truck was found guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday, after his actions on the road were found to have caused the New Year accident that killed four people.

It took two hours for the Limassol criminal court to read out its bulky ruling, in which it said the prosecution managed to prove its case.

Apart from manslaughter, the court found the accused guilty of speeding.

During the trial, the accused had admitted to reckless and dangerous driving and to jumping a red light.

The accident occurred at the intersection of Ayia Anastasia and Yiannis Kranidiotis street, near Polemidia, Limassol.

The four victims of the fatal crash were 27-year-old Vathoula Georgiou, 17-year-old Nikolas Georgiou, their 73-year-old grandfather Nikolas Zavrou and 74-year-old grandmother Evanthia Georgiou.

Twenty-seven-year-old Georgiou was driving her grandparents back home after the New Year, when having almost completed a right turn at the intersection her vehicle was struck by the 44-year-old.

The victims died upon impact while the fire service had to be called to remove them from the vehicle.

The court heard that the 44-year-old was driving at a speed twice the 50km/hour limit.

It said in its ruling that his vehicle “acted as a bullet that had been released from the gun and was moving towards its target, namely any other vehicle which, at that particular moment, was legally turning right to enter Ayia Anastasia street, as was the vehicle of the victims.”

On July 21, the defence will present its case for the mitigation of sentence and a new date will be set for passing sentence.