Road accidents, fatalities decline due to COVID-19 measures, report shows

ISTANBUL

With the pandemic disrupting mobility significantly, a declining trend has been seen in the number of road accidents and fatalities caused in Turkey, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

Nearly 4,900 people were killed and more than 226,000 others were injured in road accidents in 2020, declining from the previous year as vehicle and human mobility were disrupted due to COVID-19 related restrictions.

A total of 4,866 people lost their lives while 226,266 were injured in 983,000 road accidents that occurred last year, TÜİK revealed on June 1.

In 2019, road accidents declined nearly by 15 percent from the previous year to 1.1 million in which 5,473 people were killed, according to official figures.

Turkish authorities last year announced occasional curbs on intercity travel and frequently introduced curfews to slow the spread of the virus, which apparently helped reduce the number of road accidents.

The figures also showed that nearly 132,500 road accidents causing death or injury occurred due to drivers’ failure, while another 10,500 stemmed from pedestrians’ faults.

Some 750 accidents occurred because of poor road conditions while passengers were responsible for around 2,220 accidents. Nearly 4,050 accidents occurred due to vehicle failure.

TÜİK also reported that nearly 75.8 percent of all accidents causing death or injury occurred in inhabited areas, whereas the remaining 24.2 percent in uninhabited areas.

When the number of road accidents causing death or injury is analyzed by province, the highest number of accidents per thousand vehicles occurred in the southeastern province of Hakkâri and the least in Istanbul.

According to the statistics, almost half of the people who died in traffic accidents in 2020 were drivers, 30 percent were passengers traveling in vehicles and 20 percent were pedestrians.

Upon analyzing deaths in traffic accidents based on gender, it was seen that 79.7 percent of males and 20.3 percent of females died in accidents.

Some 122,000 passenger cars were involved in accidents, which resulted in fatalities and injuries, followed by motorcycles involved in 45,707 accidents and pick-up trucks involved in 36,955 accidents.

According to the report, traffic accidents causing death or injury occurred mostly in August and the least in April.

Based on the days of the week, traffic accidents resulting in death or injury occurred mostly on Friday at a 15.5 percent rate.

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

A total of 24.2 million vehicles, including passenger cars, trucks, motorcycles, tractors, trucks and buses of different sizes, are registered in the country as of the end of January.