Driving in Turkey
This article is posted here as it is very applicable driving in most developing countries ( Provided By US State Department).
The cardinal rules of safety to survive Turkish driving are: drive very defensively, avoid driving at night, and never let emotions affect what you do.
The Regional Security Office has analysed American employee accidents that have occurred during the past several years in order to identify "lessons learned" that can be utilised to increase driver safety and perhaps even save lives or at least prevent injuries. The conclusion is that many of the accidents -- not all, but many-were avoidable.
A number of accidents occurred when a local driver stopped, turned or took some unexpected action which caused the U.S. driver to hit the other vehicle or be struck by someone else. Many of the "unexpected" actions were unexpected according to U.S. driving standards but are quite common in Ankara and Istanbul and other parts of the country.
About half of the accidents were clearly, according to local standards, the fault of the non-U.S. drivers. The key to reducing accidents is situational awareness, concentration and extremely defensive driving. A number of defensive measures can and should be taken to increase the odds in your favour for accident-free driving. They are presented here, followed by some unique driving challenges or "threats" to watch out for in and around Ankara, Istanbul and other parts of this country.
Defensive Measures
- Always wear seat belts.
- Children should ride in the back seat with seat belts on and/or in a child safety seat.
- Drive defensively, defensively, defensively.
- Dusk is a particularly dangerous time on intercity highways because most drivers delay turning on their headlights until well after dark. Oncoming traffic can be very difficult to see.
- Situational awareness is imperative.
- Use horn to get pedestrians' attention.
- Check all mirrors and use directional signals for lane changes.
- Confirm with direct visual check. Do not rely solely on mirrors.
- Expect the unexpected.
- Drive each day as though you were on a mission: the goal of which is not to be involved in an accident, cause an accident or strike a pedestrian.
- Watch out for trucks and buses that take the right-of-way without signaling, whether they are entitled to it or not.
- Make sure your lights, signals, horn and brakes are in proper order.
- Assume nothing. Make no assumptions about what another driver may do or how they will react in a situation. Do not assume that they have seen your vehicle or will do the "right" thing.
Pay particular attention to all of the following:
- Unexpected stops or turns without signaling, for no apparent reason.
- Stopping in unexpected locations to pick up or let off passengers by cars, buses and trucks, including main highway entrance ramps, intersections, and along major highways.
- Pedestrians seemingly completely oblivious to oncoming traffic who continue to walk or run in front of vehicles to cross streets and main highways.
- Completely inattentive drivers.
- Unskilled drivers.
- Taxis and other vehicles with bad brakes.
- Animals on highways.
- Drivers that drive in the middle of the road and yield to no one.
- Drivers that overtake on blind curves.
- At night, cars without lights or lights missing.
- Oncoming drivers who play inscrutable light games, flashing and flashing whether you have your "bright's" on or not.
- Tire-shredding potholes.
- Tailgating drivers.
- Drivers that attempt to pass while you are passing another vehicle.
Increased Driver Awareness during Ramadan
During Ramadan, many people fast between the hours of sunrise and sunset. The fast includes not taking food, water, tea/coffee, and no smoking.
This temporary lack of food and stimulants while fasting during Ramadan has in the past had a deleterious effect on levels of alertness, particularly for persons driving trucks, buses, taxis and cars. Consequently, it is important for all employees and family members to be particularly aware of this potential danger and alert to other drivers.
Practice defensive driving, particularly during this month of the year. The holidays or "Bayrams" that follow Ramadan result in a dramatic increase in intercity vacation traffic and the highest accident rates of the year.
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