Four people were killed and 40 others injured in the province of Sivas in central Turkey after a bus full of passengers on a route between Ağrı and the city of Izmir overturned and was swept away several metres, after it lost control due to rain.
The accident, according to Turkish media, occurred at around 5 p.m. yesterday on the highway connecting Sivas with Erzincan as it passes through the district of İmranlı. At that time the driver of the bus, which was on a long-distance journey from the far east of the country to Izmir, lost control of the vehicle due to the slippery state of the asphalt because of the rain and went off the road.
The abrupt manoeuvre caused the bus, belonging to the Has Ağrılı Turizm company, to hit an slope on the right-hand side of the road: the high-speed collision caused the bus to overturn and then it was dragged several metres along the asphalt until it finally came to a halt and was left upright again.
After the emergency services were alerted, several police and gendarmerie teams as well as fire brigades, ambulances and members of the Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD) were dispatched to the scene of the accident, where they confirmed the death of three people at the scene: Selime Bazan, 54, Gülay Aydın, 22, and Muhteber Duran, 54; a fourth victim – Yusuf Tanrıkulu, 21 – died later in hospital.
The accident also left 40 people injured, two of them seriously, who were taken to hospitals in the region by ambulance and helicopter. This event again highlights concerns over the growing number of fatal bus accidents in Turkey, where 1,347 bus accidents with casualties were recorded between 2019 and 2024, with fatal intercity bus accidents increasing by 167% between 2020 and 2023.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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