Overspeeding Cause Of Deadly Traffic Accident In Turkey, Says Report

Preliminary findings from an investigation into an accident in southern Turkey that killed 15 people showed that the incident was caused by exceeding the speed limit.

15 people were killed while 31 others were injured after a passenger bus ploughed through a crowd that had stopped to help survivors of another traffic accident on the Tarsus-Adana-Gaziantep (TAG) Highway in Gaziantep province.

19 others were killed in a similar accident in southeastern Turkey's Mardin shortly after the accident, bringing traffic safety into the spotlight.

TAG Highway, a busy route in southern Turkey, has a speed limit of 100 kph (62 mph) but a device recording the speed of the bus showed it had reached a speed of 130 kph when it crashed into vehicles stopped to help people involved in the first crash.

The investigation on Monday showed that the bus skidded for 307 meters (1,007.22 feet). The driver of the bus was arrested following the incident and charged with manslaughter by negligence.

Meanwhile, two truck drivers, who were arrested following the accident in Mardin which killed 19 people, also spoke to investigators after they were treated for minor injuries and claimed their brakes malfunctioned.

One of the drivers was arrested for the first accident when his truck ploughed into two vehicles and killed four people. The second driver had rammed into vehicles at the scene as well as the crowd seeking to help others.

In Turkey, traffic accidents claim the lives of hundreds every year. Data from the traffic department of the Turkish police show traffic accidents killed 920 people and injured another 127,619 within the first six months of 2022. The main cause of the accidents was driver error.