Holiday traffic takes deadly toll in Turkey

More than 100 people were killed and nearly 700 injured in traffic accidents across Turkey during the holiday week, typically a deadly time on the country’s roads. As of early Sunday, 135 people had been killed and 697 wounded in 139 traffic accidents over the first eight days of the nine-day Kurban Bayram holiday. Some 15 million people in Turkey were expected to be on the road during the holiday period.

Each year, approximately 10,000 people – about the population of a district – die in traffic accidents in Turkey, with the fatalities mounting during long vacations.

Two minors, both 17 and without licenses, raced on Fahri Kayan Boulevard in the eastern province of Malatya on Sunday and crashed into parked cars. One of the drivers was pronounced dead at the hospital; the other driver and his passenger were being treated for their injuries.

Meanwhile, a minibus accident, also in Malatya, injured 16 people, while a minibus carrying people to a wedding crashed into a car in the eastern province of Hakkari’s Yüksekova district, wounding 18.

In the western province of Bursa, a truck ran off the road, injuring seven people, while a car that turned over in the Aegean province of Denizli wounded four. News of additional accidents continued to come as the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review went to press late Sunday.

Plainclothes traffic police were active in the Aegean city of İzmir, where team of 15 cops assigned to main intersections in the city fined approximately 10,000 people over the past 17 days – one-third of the fines written in a month by İzmir’s 250 regular traffic cops. The most frequent traffic violation was using cell phones while driving, with 7,169 fines issued, followed by running red lights, with 1,812 fines.

Traffic was monitored by helicopter in the Aegean province of Muğla during the holiday, reporting some 500 violations to police on the ground, to the surprise of many drivers. Many of those fined thought it was a joke when told the violations they committed had been tracked from the air; some demanded to see the recordings.

Slow traffic since Saturday evening on the TEM Highway and D-100 road into Istanbul led officials to increase the number of car ferries transporting vehicles from Yalova Topçular to Gebze Eskihisar from eight to 13, but the change did little to ease the jam.

Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım announced that no tolls would be charged on bridges and highways from Saturday at 11:45 p.m. to Monday at 3 a.m., as was the case at the beginning of the holiday.


/Hurriyet Daily News/