VIDEO: Turkish driver risks life to halt speeding truck after hit-and-run

ISTANBUL

A video showing a Turkish driver risking his life to halt a speeding truck after a hit-and-run incident has gone viral on social media.

Mahir Özkan, a 45-year-old shop owner, was driving his car in Istanbul’s Trans-European Motorway (TEM) when a Bulgarian heavy truck hit his car and attempted to run away, the Ihlas News Agency reported on May 31. As the truck started to accelerate, Özkan jumped over to its door on the driver’s side and tried to hold on.

“He drove toward me, I grabbed the door and punched the Bulgarian driver. He was keen to run away and I was keen to go like that as far as the Turkish-Bulgarian border if necessary. In the end I managed to stop him on a bend in the road,” Özkan told the agency.

Serhat Saldız, a relative of Özkan, likened him to the late Paul Walker, the actor who took the lead role in the “Fast and the Furious” movie series.

“They say Walker died in a car crash but it seems that he lives in the body of our brother Mahir. The incident was like a movie scene,” Saldız joked. 

Özkan Azadi, another relative, said this was Özkan’s “second incident,” as he previously did a similar stunt in the chaotic Istanbul traffic.