Van hit worker Şenel Çıtak and fled in Maltepe; driver got back in vehicle while victim lay dying

Şenel Çıtak lost his life on Wednesday, November 4, around 18:10 while walking home from work on Litros Yolu Street in Maltepe Neighborhood. According to reports, the sidewalk was closed to pedestrian passage due to construction work, forcing Çıtak to step into the street; at that moment, a van with a license plate that had not yet been identified struck him and fled the scene.

His nephew İsa Çıtak described the security camera footage as follows: "It hits my uncle from the left front. It stops about 15 meters ahead." He then said the driver continued as if nothing had happened and left without getting out to check the person he had hit. Coworker Halit Zinetbaş said the driver got out of the vehicle and watched the injured man gasping for breath before getting back into the vehicle and driving away.

An ambulance passing by the scene took the severely injured Çıtak to the nearest hospital. Çıtak, who was diagnosed with skull and neck fractures, brain hemorrhage, and internal bleeding, was placed in intensive care following a 4-5 hour surgery; he died shortly thereafter.

His son Ömer Faruk Çıtak said that if the driver had called the "Emergency Call Center 112" at that moment, they might not have lost his father, expressing his desire for justice to prevail.

Following an examination of security cameras, police took the van driver into custody; it was reported that proceedings at the police station were ongoing. After the autopsy at the Forensic Medicine Institution morgue was completed, Çıtak's body was handed over to his family; following afternoon prayers held at Küçükçekmece Akşemsettin Mosque, he was buried at Yeni Ayazağa Cemetery.