TOFED Chief Özcan: Drone surveillance should be deployed on highways, seatbelt alarm should be mandatory

On October 11 in Akhisar district, a tour bus traveling in reverse collided with a truck on the highway, killing 11 people and injuring 27; security camera footage revealed that the bus had stopped and reversed on the highway after passing through the intersection.

Turkey Bus Operators Federation (TOFED) General Chair Birol Özcan outlined the principal causes behind accidents in a statement to Anadolu Agency: "Drivers weaving left and right while moving, phone conversations, chatting with the driver next to them or the passenger in the adjacent seat, failing to maintain distance from a vehicle 500 meters ahead in the left lane when traveling on the route, vehicles behind signaling or flashing lights or requesting to pass, cutting in front and passing from left or right without using proper signals..."

Beyond these, Özcan also drew attention to dump trucks and buses using the left lane on highways; he counted driver changes while in motion and reversing on highways among violations that threaten road safety.

Özcan pointed to continuous drone and camera-assisted monitoring as a solution: "Today, when you monitor roads with drones and cameras equipped with this technology, if heavy vehicles and buses travel in the left lane on highways while small vehicles travel in the right lane, traffic accidents naturally occur." Emphasizing that traffic police should use this technology in traffic police areas and gendarmes in gendarmerie areas, Özcan also stressed that urgent and severe penalties should be applied to drivers who do not wear seatbelts or who speak on phones.

Noting that passengers do not have the habit of wearing seatbelts on buses, Özcan appealed to manufacturers: "Unfortunately, our bus passengers do not have the habit of wearing seatbelts in their seats. Manufacturers need to introduce this to bus seats the same way the system provides an alarm when seatbelts are not worn in small cars. All seats on buses should have seatbelts, and the system should sound an alarm if seatbelts are not being used."

The federation chair pointed out that bus companies also need to establish and effectively implement an internal discipline mechanism. He emphasized that both companies and TOFED conduct inspections, that entry and exit points, routes, and times are specified, that routes cannot be changed, and that buses are subject to penalties if they make unauthorized entries and exits, particularly to districts.