A metrobus crash during rush hour yesterday injured 11 people in Istanbul. The cause of the crash was an apparent angry passenger who hit the bus driver with an umbrella while the unruly passenger was detained by police following the accident and then arrested on Saturday.
The vehicle, a dedicated-lane bus and a popular choice of mass transit among commuters, was heading to Kadıköy district on Istanbul's Asian side when it crashed into steel barriers after its driver lost control of the vehicle and moved to the lane designated for other vehicles. It ran into a double-decker bus on the opposite lane first before crushing three cars it climbed atop after slamming into the bus.
The accident brought Istanbul's already frustrating traffic to a halt for more than one hour while paramedics scrambled to pull the injured from the wreckage of cars and the metrobus while passengers of the double-decker bus escaped uninjured.
Police officers identified the passanger, who hit the driver, as Murat A. from the scene recorded by the security camera in metrobus. The 35-year-old passanger hit the metrobus driver with an umbrella and caused the crash. After investigations, The man was arrested by police on Saturday.
Murat A. was angered when he missed his stop and asked the driver to stop the metrobus after they passed by the stop. When the driver refused, he kicked the driver and hit him with an umbrella. Serdar Çengel, one of the passengers of the metrobus, told reporters that the driver lost control after the dispute with the passenger. "If the double-decker bus it crashed into did not slow it down, we would be facing a major disaster," Çengel said.
