Train that crashed in deadly accident killing nine found to be uninsured

Duvar English

A high-speed train that crashed into a locomotive at a station near the capital of Ankara in 2018, resulting in the deaths of nine people, was found to be uninsured, according to a recent statement from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Deniz Yavuzyılmaz. 

47 people were also injured in the crash, which occurred at a station just 8KM away from Ankara's central railway station. It was the second deadly train accident that year, after a derailed train in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ in July resulted in the deaths of 24 people. 

“Since the Turkish State Railways (TCDD) did not have any insurance to cover damages that could happen to its own train cars, these damages will be fully covered by the institution,” said Yavuzyılmaz. The train car in question was valued at 114 million TL. 

“The state railways are poorly managed and lose billions of lira every year. Similar to how they were unable to protect the lives that were entrusted to them, they have added a major public loss to the loss of lives due to the crashing of the train cars in their inventory. The institution is neither able to protect our lives nor our property,” Yavuzyılmaz said, calling on the state railways to take out accident insurance. 

Though Turkey has been developing its rail network throughout the tenure of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), numerous deadly accidents have occurred, most notably a 2004 derailment that occurred in the province of Sakarya, killing 41. The disaster was the result of high-speed trains traveling on outdated railroad tracks.