Thirty-six people were on the bus. Three of them did not survive the night.
The crash happened at about 3.30 a.m. on 1 May 2026 at the Külefli junction in Bandırma, a district of Balıkesir province, according to the DHA news agency. The coach was on the Bandırma-Çanakkale road, carrying passengers from Tekirdağ. Türkiye Gazetesi reported it was headed for Muğla, while DHA described it as travelling toward İzmir. Either way, the driver lost control, the bus hit the median and rolled over, News.az reported.
This was an intercity passenger bus, not a minibus. DHA wrote that the driver lost control of the steering. Beyond that, nobody has said why. News.az noted that the cause and the driver’s identity had not been confirmed when it first reported.
The casualty count
The toll moved as the morning went on. News.az first put the injured at 22. DHA’s headline settled on 30, one of them seriously hurt, though a line in its own report said 31 were injured, so the figure is not entirely fixed. Türkiye Gazetesi, reporting later, said 30 passengers with lighter injuries were pulled to safety, while 4 seriously injured people trapped under the bus were taken to hospital after first aid.
Where they went shows the strain on local hospitals. Of the 30 injured, 16 were taken to Bandırma 17 Eylül Training and Research Hospital and 9 to a private hospital in Bandırma. One went to Karacabey State Hospital and 4 to Gönen State Hospital. The dead were carried to the mortuary at the Bandırma training hospital. Police, firefighters and medical crews were sent to the scene, and the road was closed until the wreck was removed.
What investigators have
The driver, identified only by the initials K.U., was detained after the crash, and two public prosecutors were assigned to the case. DHA said police opened an investigation. Security camera footage later emerged showing the bus leaving the Süleymanpaşa bus station in Tekirdağ, as Türkiye Gazetesi reported.
None of the reports says what the departure footage shows, and none gives a cause beyond the driver losing control. That leaves the central question of the investigation unanswered.
Sources
- Balıkesir'de yolcu otobüsü devrildi; 3 ölü, 30 yaralı (DHA)
- Passenger bus overturns in Türkiye's Balikesir, 3 dead (News.az)
- 3 kişi ölmüş, 30 kişi yaralanmıştı! Yolcu otobüsünün otogar görüntüsü ortaya çıktı (Türkiye Gazetesi)
Sources
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