At least 27 people were injured, several of them seriously, after a municipal bus lost control and crashed into several vehicles and a pedestrian crossing in the Keçiören district, north of the Turkish capital Ankara, for reasons still under investigation.
As reported by public broadcaster TRT, the accident occurred on Etlik Street, when the driver of a public bus covering the Ovacık-Kızılay-Ministries route lost control after hitting two vehicles in front of the bus and eventually hit the pillars of a pedestrian overpass located in the vicinity of Ankara’s Gülhane Hospital.
Numerous emergency services, including ambulances, police and fire brigades, immediately rushed to the scene after being alerted by eyewitnesses. Initial reports put the number of injured at 24, but the figure later rose to 27, including the bus driver himself, who was trapped in the cab of the vehicle and had to be rescued by the fire brigade, who took 15 minutes to extricate him. Although the driver’s condition is serious, there are no fears for his life or that of the other injured, who are still being treated in local hospitals and are recovering well from their injuries.
The police have opened an investigation into the accident, while the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has also initiated proceedings to determine what happened. The Ankara Metropolitan Municipality issued a statement saying that the accident occurred when the driver “lost control of the steering wheel” near the Zübeyde Hanım Hospital stop. Initial investigations suggest that the bus was travelling at 44 kilometres per hour at the time of impact.
Speaking to agencies, Emine Asa, one of the passengers on the bus who miraculously escaped unhurt, said that “suddenly there was a big noise’ and that ‘most of the people fell to the ground“. Another witness who arrived at the scene after the injured had already been evacuated from the bus, Kalender Dereli, explained that the bus hit the vehicle driven by his brother and that when he approached he saw that there were “15 or 20 people lying on the ground, injured“.
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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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