A total of 38 people were injured in two bus accidents in the space of just a few hours in Turkey, where concern is growing over a steady rise in the number of accidents involving buses, one of the country’s traditional means of transport.
Anatolia news agency reported that in the province of Afyonkarahisar, in the west of the country, the driver of a bus on its way to Gaziantep this morning lost control of the vehicle for reasons still under investigation and, after crashing into the safety barriers, went off the road, falling down a 50-metre slope and overturning near the town of Cumhuriyet, on the highway connecting Afyon with Konya.
After the emergency services were alerted, numerous fire brigade, gendarmerie and ambulance personnel, as well as members of the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD), immediately rushed to the scene of the accident, where a total of 21 people were rescued with various injuries and taken to hospitals in the province.
Shortly afterwards in Malatya, southeast Turkey, another bus full of passengers – in this case a minibus on a local route – overturned near the village of Kasımuşağı in the Akçadağ district in an accident that left a total of 17 people injured, including the driver of the vehicle. Turkish media reported that one of the passengers injured in the accident is in serious condition.
In recent years, the number of intercity bus accidents with fatalities and injuries in Turkey has been steadily increasing, as confirmed by Turkish gendarmerie statistics, which indicate that they rose from 218 in 2020 to 364 in 2023, an increase of 167%. Speeding, excessive working hours and lack of rest for drivers, and the non-use of seat belts among passengers are the main causes of the increase in fatal accidents in this type of transport, according to experts.
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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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