Road accidents kill nearly 1,500 in eight months

ANKARA

According to numbers provided by the police, road accidents in the first eight months of this year have led to nearly 1,500 deaths.

A total of 313,618 accidents occurred on the country’s roads from January to September, the data showed, with 1,469 people killed in those accidents and over 188,000 injured.

According to statistics, 1,216 of the accidents led to deaths, 125,704 involved injuries, and no injuries or deaths were reported in 186,698 accidents.

The number of fatal accidents stood at 1,216 in the first eight months of 2022.

According to the report, over 127,000 road accidents happened due to drivers’ failure, while another 14,000 occurred due to pedestrians’ fault.

Some 600 accidents occurred because of poor road conditions, while passengers were responsible for over 2,000 accidents. Nearly 3,600 accidents occurred due to vehicle failure.

Of the accidents that resulted in deaths or injuries, nearly 57,000 involved one vehicle, over 63,000 involved two vehicles and slightly over 7,000 involved three or more.

The authority also noted that nearly 40,000 accidents happened as drivers failed to adjust their vehicles’ speed to the road, weather and traffic conditions.

Nearly 100,000 passenger cars were involved in accidents, which resulted in fatalities and injuries, followed by motorcycles at 37,000 and pick-up trucks at nearly 30,000.

Some 5,700 bicycles were also involved in such road accidents.

In the first eight months of this year, the highest number of deaths from traffic accidents was in the metropolitan city of Istanbul, as 87 people lost their lives. It was followed by the southern province of Antalya with 84 deaths.

On the other hand, only 77 road accidents occurred in the first eight month of this year in the northeastern province of Ardahan, where two people died and 152 others were injured.

The total number of fines issued for violation of traffic rules was 14.39 million, while the plates were the most penalized with 11.86 million.

A total of 133,000 people were fined for drunk driving, while over 831,000 vehicles were banned from traffic for various reasons.

Over the past 10 years, the highest casualties in traffic accidents were recorded in 2015, with 7,500 deaths.

Some 1.186 million road accidents occurred in Türkiye in 2021, while some 998,000 were with material loss and nearly 188,000 involved death or injury.

The number of people killed in accidents in 2021 increased by 10.2 percent compared to 2020, the year the world was gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic.