The painful truth about the bus that overturned in Erzincan revealed! He sacrificed himself...

Of the 26 people injured in the bus accident on December 28 at the Sakaltutan location of the Erzincan-Sivas highway, in which 1 person died, 22 have been discharged following their treatment at the Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University Mengücek Gazi Training and Research Hospital.

It was stated that 53-year-old driver Ali Gülmüş, who was rescued from the accident with injuries but lost his life in the hospital despite interventions, saved the lives of the passengers by refusing to leave the steering wheel and acting with self-sacrifice.

"THERE WAS NOTHING TO BE DONE"

The bus's second driver, Emre İncediş, said that he and 3 others are still receiving treatment in the hospital, and that Captain Gülmüş saved the bus from falling into the cliff by steering it into a snowbank on the left side of the road.

Explaining that they had set off to come to Erzincan for a funeral as employees of the Kartal Municipality, İncediş stated that they last took a break at a facility, and that Ali Gülmüş was the one driving the vehicle after that point.

Stating that they experienced problems shortly after the break, İncediş continued as follows:

"The captain said 5-7 minutes after the break that the vehicle's brakes were not working. I told him, 'Don't panic.' He downshifted. He saw that the steering wheel became heavy. We locked eyes. I told him, 'Turn the car to the left.' The right side is a cliff, if it goes straight it's a slope, and there are semi-trucks coming from below. Together, we turned it to the left as much as we could. I asked for forgiveness. I went towards the back and shouted to the passengers, 'Fasten your seatbelts, don't panic, our vehicle is sliding.' Everyone was already reciting the shahada, we don't remember anything after that."

Pointing out that the bus, which was going at 30 kilometers per hour before the accident, suddenly accelerated to 100, İncediş noted the following:

"He panicked too, I said, 'There is nothing to be done.' At least let's lay it on its left, so that whoever dies or gets injured is one of our own. If we were on the right, no one would have a chance of survival. Those who know Sakaltutan know that there is no median in the middle anyway. We jumped across from there. A semi-truck is coming from the opposite direction. There is a gutter like a water channel. It jumped from there onto the flat ground, and then the car slid and we fell into a place like a canal. I had already fixed the steering wheel before falling there, I said, 'I'm going to the back, forgive me.' There was nothing to be done. He sacrificed himself. If he had run away and come to the back with me, none of us would be alive right now."

Hüseyin Ateş, one of the passengers whose treatment continues in the hospital, explained that the deceased driver was his nephew and that Gülmüş put his life on the line to avoid hitting the oncoming semi-truck at the moment of the accident.

Stating that the bus accelerated about 5 minutes after the break, Ateş said that the second captain, who came to the front and shouted "Lay the car to the left," also contributed to saving people's lives.

Stating that the vehicle sped up and hit a bump, Ateş said, "A semi-truck was coming from below. To avoid hitting the truck, the captain put his life on the line and turned the car to the left. If he had gone to the right, no one would have been left in the car. The brakes didn't work, the car was both sliding and speeding up. I was sitting in the middle seat. I went from there to the 5th seat. I flew inside the car. My leg, everything was broken. We were bringing a funeral. The deceased was my nephew. The car's brakes didn't work either. It's an unforeseen accident, but this car shouldn't have been given on a winter day. You can't go with this car on a winter day."