At least six people were killed and 34 others were injured, several of them seriously, in an bus crash this morning in the central Turkish province of Aksaray when a bus full of tourists heading to Cappadocia skidded off the road for reasons still under investigation.
Turkish media reported that the accident occurred at around 7:00 a.m. local time (6: 00 CET) on the road connecting Ankara to Aksaray; the bus, carrying 44 people in total – 41 passengers, two drivers and a guide – had left hours earlier from Bandırma – in Turkey’s northwestern province of Balıkesir – and was heading for a tour of the Cappadocia region when it suddenly left the road at high speed and overturned violently: an accident captured by nearby security cameras.
According to the driver of a car who escaped by metres from being hit by the bus, the driver probably fell asleep at the wheel: ‘The bus passed me and then started swerving left and right. I turned on my lights and blew my horn,’ he said, explaining how he tried to avoid the accident. ‘I was sleeping and suddenly I saw the bus overturn,’ salid another witness, one of the passengers on the stricken bus who was saved because he was wearing his seatbelt.
The bus was on its way to Cappadocia, one of Turkey’s most popular tourist regions, on a trip organised for Turkish tourists. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya reported that six people died as a result of the bus crash and 34 others were injured, two of them seriously. Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said that a total of three prosecutors have been assigned to the case to investigate the causes of the accident.
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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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