A passenger bus travelling between Tekirdağ – in Turkish Thrace region – and Antalya – on the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia -, plunged into a ravine this morning after suffering an accident in Antalya, in southern Turkey, killing nine people and injuring dozens more, according to breaking news reports.
As reported by the Turkish news agency DHA, at around 10:20 this morning the bus, operated by the ‘Buzlu’ transport company, crashed into road barriers at the Kömürler junction in the district of Döşemealtı (a few kilometres north of the city of Antalya), before plunging several metres down a ravine.
After the accident was reported,emergency crews immediately rushed to the scene where they helped some passengers who had been thrown from the vehicle, while several trapped passengers were rescued by rescue teams from the Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD) and the firefighters.
The governor of Antalya, Hulusi Şahin, went to the scene of the accident and after inspecting the area, confirmed that the tragedy occurred “at the Kömürcüler junction in the Döşemealtı district on the northern ring road, where a passenger bus overturned after failing to negotiate the curve at the junction“.
The bus was speeding
Şahin noted that initial observations indicated that the road was wet due to rain and that there was fog in the area at the time of the accident, but added that the bus appeared to be travelling at an inappropriate speed for the road conditions.
“It was raining, the roads were wet and there was fog at the time of the accident. However, it is not a road suitable for high speed driving. Details will be known after the investigation,” he said. Precisely, Turkey’s Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said on social media that a judicial investigation has been launched by the Antalya Public Prosecutor’s Office, for which a deputy chief prosecutor and two prosecutors have been assigned.
The driver eventually died in hospital
In a further public statement made later from the Antalya Training and Research Hospital, Governor Şahin reported that eight people had lost their lives at the scene of the accident and 22 people were taken to hospitals with injuries, although several media outlets raised the total number of people injured in the crash to 25. Şahin also said that İzzet Karaağaç, the driver of the bus, who had been taken among the injured to the same hospital, eventually died despite all the efforts of doctors to save his life.
“The death toll has risen to nine. Of the other 21 injured, four are in the hospital city of Antalya and three in the Training and Research Hospital, which means that seven of the injured are in critical condition and continue to receive treatment under code red. Two of our patients in the city hospital have suffered amputations; one has lost a leg and the other an arm. They are being transferred to the university hospital; our teams are ready to reattach the limbs of our two amputee patients at Akdeniz University,” the Turkish governor said.
“People were screaming. It was indescribable”
Ahmet Kodaz, one of the witnesses and a passenger on the bus, told DHA about the moment the bus lost control and went off the road: “The road was covered in fog and the driver was going very fast. As we approached the curve, I knew it was a very sharp curve, so I held on, but the driver couldn’t take it. The vehicle leaned to one side, skidded and hit the barriers. People started to fall; I tried to hold them, but I couldn’t”.
Fatma İnce, a local woman who owns a business in the area, said that accidents are very frequent on this stretch: “This road is a death trap. Accidents happen all the time. A solution must be found urgently. I also drive and I am very worried about driving on this curve. Many mothers are suffering. We ask the authorities for support. Something needs to be done with this road”.
Yunus Yıldız, a driver who saw the bus accident and stopped to try to help the victims, recounted terrible moments of anguish as he approached the scene: “There was a lot of screaming. We pulled the survivors out onto the road. There was a little girl; we pulled her out. We did everything we could. When I approached, at first I experienced something like a shock. There was screaming… They were saying things like: ‘Call my family, my arm has been amputated, my leg has been amputated…’. Some of the passengers were on the road, some were under the bus and the rest were next to the vehicle. We tried to get out as many of the injured as we could. It was a really indescribable feeling.”
VOTE
EDITORIAL TEAM
🧿 About us
.
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.
…
📣 Your ADVERTISING on Hispanatolia
.
🤗 HELP US WITH A DONATION:
💗 Paypal
