Driverless semi-truck severed İrem's two legs: 'I will continue with prosthetics'

Kadir and İrem Karatutlu were married on July 26, 2024. The couple, both motorcycle enthusiasts, celebrated their first wedding anniversary by attending a motorcycle festival held in the Kadirli district of Osmaniye with their friends. While returning to Kahramanmaraş after the anniversary festivities, the couple's motorcycle and another accompanying motorcycle had to pull over to the side of the road near Nurdağı, Gaziantep, due to a warning light indicating a malfunction.

The Karatutlu couple pulled their motorcycle onto the emergency lane and were dealing with the malfunction when a tow truck arrived to assist them for safety reasons. A short time later, a semi-truck with no driver inside lost control, veered onto the emergency lane and barriers on its own. The truck first hit the tow truck and then struck the surrounding vehicles, pinning former Kahramanmaraş Bar Association President Mehmet Mesut Karslıoğlu and fitness instructor İrem Karatutlu, who were there at the time. Karatutlu, who was severely injured by the impact, lost both her legs below the knee at the hospital where she was taken. The truck driver, who was not in the vehicle at the time of the accident, was detained and subsequently arrested by the court.

İrem's husband, Kadir Karatutlu, said, "It was our wedding anniversary, and there was a motorcycle festival in Kadirli, Osmaniye, that day. We went there to celebrate with my wife and other biker friends, and on the way back, we pulled our motorcycles into the emergency lane on the right due to a malfunction. Then, the tow trucks that were following us also pulled their vehicles into the emergency lane with us. About 5-10 minutes later, a driverless semi-truck came along, scraping the barriers and dragging all the vehicles that were there with us. It dragged them for about 500-600 meters. I saw the truck and jumped toward the road. I was about 20 meters behind where my wife was."

"I started running toward my wife. I shouted for them to run away, to get out of there, but the truck's speed was between 70-100 km/h. The place where we stopped was the emergency lane, and it was already on a downward slope. A driverless truck plowed through all the vehicles there. There were about 8-10 people there. Our friends escaped by milliseconds. My wife could not escape that accident. She was dragged under the motorcycles for about 600 meters. I kept running after it, trying to find her."

"Because the truck kept moving forward, it never stopped. Then I was able to see my wife. I was happy when I saw her; she looked quite well. But when I got to her side, I saw that both my legs were crushed. And when I saw that they had been severed there, I was devastated. Then, with the rescue processes and everything, the fire that broke out made our situation very difficult. It was as if the scene had frozen at that moment," he said.

Continuing his statement, Karatutlu said, "I was most surprised when I learned the cause of this accident. The cause of the accident starts in 3 stages. The truck that hit us stops before entering the first tunnel, then enters the tunnel, and stops uncontrollably inside the tunnel. When it stops this time, because the driver did not pull the emergency brake, it starts to move on its own. It comes all the way to where we were stopped on its own. It was a loaded truck carrying medical supplies," he stated.

Expressing that they experienced horror on their wedding anniversary, İrem Karatutlu said the incident occurred when they parked their motorcycles in the emergency lane on the way back. Karatutlu said, "A tow truck arrived while we were standing there. The tow truck wanted to help us that day. Then I heard a sound behind me."

"When I heard the sound, I realized my husband was calling out to me; he had noticed the truck before I did. I saw it, but there was no chance of escaping. Because the truck had gotten very close to me. It hit me just as I took two steps. When I opened my eyes, I saw that my legs were under the truck. I felt my husband's support very strongly during this process. He was the one who was by my side the most. I also feel the support of my family. I thank them as well. In this process, I will continue my life with prosthetics. My physical therapy sessions will begin in two months. We were 400 meters past the tunnel. The truck that came at us was a driverless truck," she said.