9 People Killed and Dozens Injured After ‘Speeding’ Bus Rolls Off Road

A routine overnight bus trip in southern Turkey turned catastrophic Sunday morning.

Nine people were killed. At least 26 others were injured. Several are fighting for their lives.

Authorities say the passenger bus veered off the road and rolled into a ravine in Antalya Province, a popular region known to many Americans as a gateway to Mediterranean tourism.

But officials believe this crash could have been prevented.

The bus was traveling the long-distance Tekirdag–Antalya route, carrying passengers overnight from northwestern Turkey toward the southern coast.

As it entered Dosemealti, a district northwest of Antalya’s city center, the vehicle lost control.

Officials say the bus skidded on slick pavement, slammed into roadside barriers, then plunged down an embankment.

Images broadcast by TRT showed the wrecked bus lying on its side along a highway slip road.

Provincial Governor Hulusi Şahin said weather conditions were dangerous at the time of the crash.

“The ground was wet, and there was fog in the area,” Şahin told reporters.

Then he added a troubling detail.

“It’s not a place to speed,” he said. “But it seems the bus was speeding.”

Investigators believe the driver failed to slow down while approaching a curve. The driver was among the nine people killed.

According to the DHA news agency, the force of the rollover was so violent that some passengers were ejected from the vehicle.

Of the 26 injured, at least seven suffered catastrophic trauma, including amputations and severe internal injuries, officials confirmed.

Emergency crews rushed survivors to nearby hospitals as families anxiously waited for news.

One survivor told Turkiye Today that visibility was poor and that the driver appeared unable to safely handle the curve as the bus overturned.

Turkey’s Justice Ministry of Turkey confirmed a formal investigation is underway to determine whether speed, weather, mechanical failure, or human error caused the crash.

The tragedy comes amid growing concern over road safety nationwide.

Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya recently warned of a dangerous “traffic culture” after more than 6,300 people died on Turkey’s roads in 2024 alone. He has publicly called for stricter traffic laws and tougher enforcement.

Shockingly, this was not the only fatal accident near Antalya on Sunday.

Seven more people were killed in a separate collision involving two vehicles in Burdur, roughly 40 miles north of the bus crash site, according to Associated Press.

Together, the crashes have intensified scrutiny on highway safety in a country where long-distance bus travel remains common.

For now, investigators are focused on one central question: Why was a bus traveling so fast on wet, fog-covered roads — and could those lives have been saved?