Data from the traffic department of the Turkish police shows traffic accidents killed 920 people and injured another 127,619 within the first six months of 2022. The main cause of the accidents was driver error.
A total of 88,000 accidents were reported across the country in the same period, involving nearly 70,000 cars and more than 25,000 motorcycles. The majority of accidents were in residential areas while the rest occurred in rural parts of the country with sparse populations or along highways.
Driver error topped the list of causes of accidents, while some 10,316 accidents were the result of pedestrian errors. Another 2,260 accidents were caused by malfunctioning vehicles. Speeding was the main error on the drivers’ part, though overtaking on narrow roads also proved dangerous.
The country’s most populated city Istanbul had the highest number of accidents, at more than 11,000, with 58 people dying in those accidents. In the capital Ankara, 39 people died in 6,335 accidents in the first six months of the year. Traffic fatalities stood at 34 in country’s third largest province Izmir in the same period. Ardahan in northeastern Turkey had the least number of accidents, with just 50, resulting in one fatality and 104 people sustaining injuries.
Also in the same period of 2022, traffic police issued more than 10 million fines and banned more than 606,000 vehicles from traffic for a range of safety violations.
According to official figures, more than 1.1 million accidents occurred across Turkey in 2021, which is higher than the 2019 and 2020 figures but lower than 2018. Nevertheless, only 187,963 accidents resulted in deaths or injuries.
