A passenger bus veered off the road and crashed into a ditch in the central Turkish province of Yozgat on Monday, killing 12 people and injuring 19, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported, citing a local governor.
The driver of the bus, who also died in the tragedy, lost control of the vehicle, which crossed into oncoming traffic and then plunged into a ditch near the Sorgun district of Yozgat, Governor Mehmet Ali Özkan said.
The governor said 11 of the passengers died at the scene, while one of them succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. He said among the 19 injured passengers treated at nearby hospitals, one is in critical condition.
Yozgat is some 240 kilometers east of Sivas from where the bus travelling to İstanbul.
The governor said “carelessness” on the part of the driver could have caused the accident and that an investigation has been launched to determine the exact cause of the tragedy.
Turkey has a poor record of road safety. According to the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), 5,229 people were killed and 288,696 others were injured in traffic accidents in 2022.