Traffic Accidents Claim 9 Lives, Injure 11 In Single Day

Nine people were killed and an additional 11 injured in three traffic accidents that took place on Sunday.

The first accident involved a van that was carrying a family home from a wedding in Amasya. The van overturned in Hekimhan, a district of Malatya province, on Sunday, leaving six dead and four others injured. The incident took place near Yeşilkale on the Sivas-Malatya highway.

Salih Ferhat lost control of his van and went off the road for an as yet unknown reason. After witnesses called for assistance, teams from the Prime Ministry's Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) were dispatched to the site of the accident. The injured were taken to a hospital and rescue workers were eventually able to remove the bodies of the six victims from the severely damaged vehicle.

Reports indicate the driver died, but the remaining bodies have not yet been positively identified, though all are believed to be members of the same family.

The second accident resulted in two deaths and three injured, and was reportedly caused by a drunk driver losing control of his truck and crossing into oncoming traffic.

The accident occurred in Denizli's Sümer neighborhood when Fikret Özsoy, 64, lost control of his vehicle and had a head-on collision with a car coming from the opposite direction. Nineteen-year-old Abdullah Akdağ, the driver of the oncoming car, and Ali Çınar, 21, his passenger, died at the scene despite the efforts of emergency teams. Özsoy and two others who were injured when a third vehicle also became involved in the accident were taken to nearby hospitals.

Another accident took place in Kahramanmaraş province when Yakup Kısa lost control of his vehicle and it went off the road on Sunday evening.

Nine-year-old Ayşenur Kısa was killed and four other family members injured. The accident occurred approximately 10 kilometers from the city of Kahramanmaraş on the highway to Adana.

Yakup Kısa lost control of the car and it rolled over after going off the road. Yakup Kısa and family members Fatma Kısa, Fatih Kısa and Nazlı Kısa were taken to Kahramanmaraş State Hospital while Ayşenur Kısa's body was taken to the morgue. The police are investigating the incident.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)