MANISA, Turkey
Fifteen people have lost their lives in a horrific traffic collision in western Turkey, early Monday morning.
Police confirmed that there was a crash between an articulated lorry and a smaller vehicle carrying 16 people, all employed in seasonal work picking vine leaves.
The collision happened in Golmarmara town, Manisa province between 5.30-6.00 a.m. local time [0230-0300GMT].
Governor of Manisa province, Erdogan Bektas, said that among the 15 fatalities were 13 women from the same village, adding that the driver of the lorry – a large, milk-delivery vehicle – may have fallen asleep.
"It seems that the road where the crash happened was wide, straight and clear," Bektas said.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Golmarmara town, Kamil Oz, said that the lorry driver and a wounded person were hospitalized but that they were not suffering from life-threatening injuries.
