An intercity bus bound for Istanbul crossed into the opposite lane on a main highway in southern Turkey on Sunday, May 26, 2024, and plowed into a truck and two other vehicles. Ten people died.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya put the number of injured at 39. Reuters reported that the bus had left Diyarbakir and was in the Tarsus district, close to the Mediterranean city of Mersin, when the crash happened. Daily Sabah, which counted 40 injured in its early tally, named the stretch as the Tarsus-Adana-Gaziantep Highway and placed the wreck in the Yenice neighborhood of Tarsus.
What investigators are looking at
The bus belonged to the Star Diyarbakir company, Daily Sabah said. It went across the carriageway and hit two cars and a truck in a chain reaction, so four vehicles ended up in the pileup.
Ambulance crews from the 112 health service, police and fire brigades went to the scene. The Tarsus Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office opened a judicial investigation and put three prosecutors on it. Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said on social media that “a judicial investigation has been initiated.” The question at the center of it is simple: why did the driver leave his lane?
Survivors were taken to hospitals in Mersin and Adana, among them Mersin City Hospital, Mersin Tarsus State Hospital and Adana Cukurova State Hospital. Nine of the injured were in serious condition. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca confirmed the casualty figures and said treatment was continuing.
President Erdogan and Vice President Yilmaz both sent messages of sympathy to the families of the dead.
Sources
- Ten dead, 39 injured in southern Turkiye highway collision
- 10 fatalities in Mersin traffic accident, investigation initiated
