08-08-2007, 04:23 PM
A collision in Adıyaman between a truck and a van carrying agricultural workers leave 24 people dead.
A collision late on Monday in the eastern province of Sivas involving a fruit truck and a van carrying agricultural workers left 24 people dead.
There were no survivors from the head-on collision in the Kangal region, with rescue workers spending hours to extricate the badly mutilated bodies from the wreckage.
Authorities have so far identified the truck's driver and 20 of the agricultural workers who were between 13 and 48 years of age. 23 of the victims were traveling in the van, while the other casualty was the truck driver. The van was taking the workers to the Black sea province of Giresun.
Anatolia said the van's passengers were hazelnut pickers from the province of Adıyaman in the southeast of the country. Every summer, hundreds of jobless people from the impoverished southeast travel to northern Turkey, where they are employed as seasonal workers in the harvesting of the region's large hazelnut sector.
Sivas Governor Veysel Dalmaz said the collision was caused when the van driver was speeding, and crashed into a truck while trying to overtake a car.
The Sivas-Malatya highway was closed for five-and-a-half hours due to the crash.
A collision late on Monday in the eastern province of Sivas involving a fruit truck and a van carrying agricultural workers left 24 people dead.
There were no survivors from the head-on collision in the Kangal region, with rescue workers spending hours to extricate the badly mutilated bodies from the wreckage.
Authorities have so far identified the truck's driver and 20 of the agricultural workers who were between 13 and 48 years of age. 23 of the victims were traveling in the van, while the other casualty was the truck driver. The van was taking the workers to the Black sea province of Giresun.
Anatolia said the van's passengers were hazelnut pickers from the province of Adıyaman in the southeast of the country. Every summer, hundreds of jobless people from the impoverished southeast travel to northern Turkey, where they are employed as seasonal workers in the harvesting of the region's large hazelnut sector.
Sivas Governor Veysel Dalmaz said the collision was caused when the van driver was speeding, and crashed into a truck while trying to overtake a car.
The Sivas-Malatya highway was closed for five-and-a-half hours due to the crash.