Deaths in road accidents decline in 2019

ANKARA

Nearly 5,500 people were killed and more than 280,000 others were injured in road accidents in Turkey in 2019, down from some 6,700 deaths in the previous year, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) has reported.

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

According to TÜİK, a total of 1.17 million accidents occurred on the country’s roads last year, slightly down from 1.2 million accidents in 2018.

The statistics authority also reported that nearly 76 percent of those accidents happened in inhabited areas, whereas the remaining 24 percent in uninhabited areas.

Around 43 percent of those who were killed in the accidents last year were drivers, while passengers accounted for 34 percent of all casualties and 23 percent were pedestrians.

Nearly 88 percent of all accidents in 2019 was due to driver failure.

TÜİK also said that most of the accidents — some 11 percent in total — occurred in August, while the lowest number of accidents was recorded in February with a 5.8 percent share.

Official data showed that fewer accidents occurred during this year’s Eid al-Fitr compared with the previous years as the number of vehicles on the roads declined because of travel and other anti-virus measures.

Some 33 people were killed in road accidents, which marked the lowest death toll in the past 13 years during an Eid. Around 100 people were also injured in the traffic accidents.

Turkey imposed a four-day nationwide curfew this year for the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, at the end of May.

Last year, 83 people were killed and nearly 870 others were injured in road accidents during Eid.