Traffic accidents continue to increase compared to last year despite improvements in infrastructure, according to Police Department figures released which show 1,204 people died in traffic accidents in the first five months of 2014.

Despite improvements in road infrastructure, fatal traffic accidents in Turkey have not died down according to the latest statistics released by the Turkish National Police.

The police announced that 1,204 people were killed in traffic accidents across the country in the first five months of 2014. A total of 142,591 accidents occurred across the country, injuring 98,639 people. Over 12,000 accidents involved pedestrians while 181 accidents involving cars running into animals were recorded in the first five months of 2014. There were 191 pile-ups and 1,386 accidents involving motorists running into parked cars. Drivers were found to be at fault in 50,172 accidents and 6,729 accidents were blamed on inattention of pedestrians. Another 1,024 accidents were attributed to impaired drivers.

Experts warn the death toll may increase in the coming years if measures are not taken to reverse the trend. Despite the construction of wider roads, incentives and laws to take aged cars off the roads and increased fines on motorists violating road safety, accidents are still common in the country. A rising number of accidents are being blamed on reckless driving, a rather common phenomenon in the country.

In the first five months of 2013 traffic accidents killed 835 people. Last year, a total of 3,685 people were killed in 374,378 accidents and again, most accidents were due to driver's errors. According to statistics, over 4,000 people died in accidents between 2004 and 2010 and this figure dropped below 4,000 for the first time in 2011.

Turkey is among the countries with high levels of road fatalities according to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics despite comprehensive laws to prevent the accidents including enforcement of speed limits and measures against drunk driving.