8 dead after bus overturns in Antalya, Turkey
Published by RawNews1st
A intercity bus rolled off a road in southern Turkey’s Antalya province on Sunday, killing nine people, a senior official said.
Provincial Gov. Hulusi Sahin said 21 people were injured, seven of whom suffered critical wounds such as severed limbs. The driver was among the fatalities. The DHA news agency reported that some passengers were thrown from the bus, which had traveled overnight from Tekirdag in Turkey’s northwest.
Antalya, a popular tourist destination on the Mediterranean, has been hit by heavy rain in recent days. “The ground was wet and there was also fog in the area. It’s not a place to speed, but it seems the bus was speeding,” Sahin told TRT.
The same day, seven people died in a head-on car collision in Burdur, some 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Dosemealti.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya took to social media to lament a “traffic culture” that saw 6,351 people die on Turkey’s roads in 2024 and outline existing proposals to tighten traffic laws.
“Our teams intervened very quickly after the incident. We transferred 22 patients to Döşemealtı State Hospital, Antalya City Hospital, and Training and Research Hospital. Despite all interventions, bus driver Izzet Karaağaç could not be saved, raising the death toll to nine.”
He continued: “Of the others, seven patients are still receiving critical treatment, including four at a City Hospital and three at a Training and Research Hospital. Two of these patients underwent amputations, and they are being transferred from the City Hospital to a University Hospital. Our teams are ready at Akdeniz University to perform operations to reattach limbs on two patients simultaneously.”
