First 'selfie-related' accident on 3rd Istanbul bridge leaves 1 dead, 1 injured

The first deadly traffic accident on the newly-opened third Bosphorus Bridge happened early morning on Tuesday, just three days after its grand opening ceremony. Unfortunately, one man died and another was injured in the accident.

However, what made the accident so peculiar was that it was caused by a 'selfie'.

According to the workers on the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge a truck driver stopped his vehicle in the middle of the bridge and got out to take a selfie. Another truck on the road hit the truck from behind, not realizing that it had stopped.



The driver taking selfies fell from his vehicle upon the impact and got stuck between the vehicle and the barriers. The heavily injured driver was immediately transferred to a nearby hospital but could not be saved.

Traffic came to a halt in the Asia- Europe direction. After two hours of work, the two trucks were removed from the bridge and traffic resumed to normal.



Meanwhile, initial footage from the scene showed that drivers passing on the bridge were the first to help the injured truck driver, as there were no police units or officials nearby.

Recently, drivers also reported a number of traffic breaches by buses and trucks on the connecting roads linking to the bridge.

Thousands of people had flocked to the bridge over the weekend to take selfies.

The new bridge has eight road lanes, two rail tracks and is the longest suspension bridge with a railway system in the world.