At least nine people were killed and 26 others injured in a fatal bus crash early this morning outside Turkey’s capital Ankara, when a bus was smashed to pieces after colliding head-on with a bridge pillar at high speed.
According to Turkish media reports, the accident occurred at around 5:00 a.m. (04:00 CET) when the bus, which was covering a route between the cities of Izmir (west coast of Turkey) and Ağrı (eastern Anatolia), veered-off the road for reasons still under investigation and crashed head-on into one of the concrete pillars supporting a bridge near Olukpınar, a small town in the Polatlı district located about 50 km from Ankara.
A large number of emergency crews were mobilised, and firefighters in particular had to make great efforts to rescue the people trapped in the wreckage of the bus, which was almost split in two by the force of the impact. Several teams of psychologists have been assigned to assist the survivors of the tragedy, according to Turkey’s Minister of Family and Social Services, Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş.
Ankara Governor Vasip Şahin said it was not ruled out that the driver, whose identity has not yet been released, had fallen asleep at the wheel. Meanwhile, Turkish Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç has announced the launch of an investigation – to which three prosecutors are said to have been assigned – to find out what caused the accident.
Murat Türkoğlu, a witness to the fatal accident who was travelling with his car right behind the bus, told the media that the vehicle started to make strange manoeuvres shortly before it hit the bridge: “I was on my way to Polatlı, I had left from Temelli and I was driving very close behind it. The bus was going very fast and started swerving for about 3-4 kilometres before it hit the bridge. Debris from the bus hit my car. I honked my horn and flashed my lights, but no one responded.”
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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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