Seven dead, 11 injured in bus crash in Turkey

Ankara, Dec 6 (IANS) At least seven people were killed and 11 others injured on Saturday when a passenger bus rear-ended a stationary truck on a main highway in Turkey's southeastern Osmaniye province, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.

The accident occurred near the Bahce district after the truck, which had a flat tire, stopped on the roadside, it reported, noting that the road had been closed to traffic.

The truck driver has been taken into custody, while rescue crews are working to remove the vehicles involved. The cause of the accident remains under investigation, it reported.

A separate statement from the Osmaniye governor's office said that efforts are ongoing to identify the victims.

In July, four people were killed and 33 others injured when a passenger bus crashed into a mountainside in the Imranli district of Turkey's central Sivas province.

The passenger bus, traveling from the eastern Agri province to the western Izmir province, crashed into a mountainside near Kuzkoy village on the Sivas-Erzincan highway on July 20, Xinhua news agency reported.

Road accidents are common in Turkey. Traffic accidents claimed 2,713 lives across Turkey in 2024, according to the General Directorate of Security. The highest number of accidents occurred in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir, with Istanbul alone recording 97,354 incidents.

In October 2024, seven people were killed and 33 others injured after a passenger bus overturned in the central Aksaray province of Turkey.

Aksaray Provincial Governor Mehmet Ali Kumbuzoglu had told reporters then that the tourist bus overturned 25 km from the city of Aksaray.

In 2023, official data recorded 6,548 deaths and 350,855 injuries, averaging around 18 deaths and 961 injuries per day.

Speeding was the leading cause of fatal crashes in Turkey last year.

--IANS

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