C. Ahmet Akçakaya, Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Istanbul Branch of the Chamber of Mechanical Engineers of TMMOB, made a statement regarding the issues to be considered before setting off during the Ramadan Feast holiday.
With the holiday, which will start on May 2, we will enter a week in which traffic density and danger will increase. Unfortunately, traffic accidents increase in parallel with the increase in traffic density during the holiday holiday, and every year thousands of our people lose their lives as a result of these accidents. This situation reveals the importance of the precautions to be taken by the drivers and the authorities and the issues to be considered before setting off before the Eid holiday.
According to the December 2021 bulletin, which also presents the 2021 general table published by the EGM, there were a total of 2021 traffic accidents in Turkey in 430.204, of which 187.524 resulted in deaths and injuries.
According to the data from the EGM, the biggest fault in fatal-injury accidents in 2021 was the drivers. Similar to 223.978, 2020% of the 87 faults causing these accidents are drivers; It was determined that 8,2% was caused by pedestrians, 2,5% by vehicles, 1,8% by passengers and only 0,5% by road.
According to the data of EGM, the number of bicycles involved in accidents that caused deaths and injuries decreased by 2020% in 7 compared to the previous year. 2021 was a year when this number started to rise again and increased by 16,8%, and 8887 bicycles were involved in accidents resulting in loss of life and injuries.
As can be seen, most of the accidents are caused by the human factor.
Precaution Saves Lives
In order to minimize traffic accidents that may occur due to human error, drivers and all passengers who set off during the holidays should wear seat belts, obey the speed limit, not drive tired, sleepless or drunk, and not overtake incorrectly. Drivers should rest enough and take a break every 2-3 hours before setting off. On long-distance journeys, two drivers should be taken if possible. Before the trip, drugs that prevent vision and aggravate reflexes should not be taken. Drivers should avoid unnecessary and incorrect overtaking; should reduce their speed on bends, junctions and places with poor visibility, such as on hilltops. Pedestrians should definitely use a pedestrian crossing. It should be checked that the mandatory equipment such as first aid kit, triangle reflector, fire extinguisher in the vehicles are complete.
Many accidents occur due to insufficient warnings and warnings in road construction and renovation works. Warning and warning signs in these parts must be placed completely and fixed in such a way that they will not be affected by external factors (wind, snow, rain, human intervention, etc.).
Suggestions for Drivers:
Tire: in this weather winter tire should not go with Summer Tire should be attached. Before the journey, the air pressures of all tires should be increased to the value of “Loaded Vehicle”.
Speed: Drivers of holiday vehicles must obey the speed limit. For us mechanical engineers, increasing speed increases the vehicle's kinetic energy by the ratio of the squares of the speed. In other words, if a bus that should go at 100km/h on the highway goes at 120km/h, its speed %20 as its kinetic energy increases %44 increases and this increase increases the inertia force acting on the vehicle and passengers during the collision.
Safety belt: Seat belts must be worn on the front and rear seats. Passengers must also wear seat belts on intercity buses. The inertia force, which acts on all passengers during the collision and can increase up to 20-30 times the weight of the passenger, tries to throw the passengers out of the seat, only the seat belt binds them to the seat and life.
Brake and Follow Distance: Since the weight of the holiday vehicles is higher than the daily commuting use, the following distance should also be increased compared to the empty vehicle. The driver of the holiday vehicle should be able to press the brake pedal with higher foot force compared to daily urban and unladen use, and for this, the sitting position should be adjusted correctly. Driving the vehicle, which is heavier than daily urban use, at high speed and on long downhills on the holiday road, causes the brakes to heat up and the braking distance to increase.zammay cause it to hang or not to stick at all (fading). In order to stabilize the speed on long downhill descents, engine compression should be used by downshifting.
Load Security: In station wagons, the load in the trunk must be fixed.
Loading: The amount of passenger and load that can be carried in the vehicle should not exceed the value of the vehicle's license.
Maintenance: On the road The maintenance of the vehicles should be done at least one week before the holiday, at the authorized or competent services, and the journey should not be started as soon as the maintenance is done. In this way, deficiencies or errors that may occur after maintenance will be completed before the journey, and parts that need to be used such as brake pads will be used up. Vehicles with changed brake parts (pads, drums, discs) must be fully braked before traveling on roads with low traffic and at low speeds.
"Lane Discipline" should be applied on Divided Roads and Motorways
Unfortunately, "lane discipline" is not applied and supervised on our divided roads and highways. Drivers should abide by the following rules against false examples:
- It is mandatory to drive on the far right when the lanes are empty on highways, including cars.
- It is strictly forbidden to occupy the middle lane or to cross the right lane with the thought that the middle lane is occupied.
- The left lane should not be used continuously. This lane is used only for overtaking the previous vehicle. It is forbidden to harass the vehicle in front with the flashlight while in the left lane.
- Buses must go in the right lane with trucks. The bus can only enter the middle lane to pass the truck in front of it. If the right lane is full of trucks, the bus can use the middle lane with the cars and then crosses again in the right lane. He can never use the left lane.
- It is mandatory to follow the following distance rule at all times.
Technical inspection of LPG vehicles
Maintenance and control of LPG powered vehicles is extremely important for our road safety. Unfortunately, with the regulation published in the Official Gazette dated 23 June 2017 by the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology; The requirement to search for a "Gas Tightness Report" for LPG vehicles has been completely eliminated. As a result of the said practice, authorized firms that employ expert engineers and transform in accordance with the standards will be deleted from the market, unregistered, unauthorized, unqualified, non-experts, uncontrolled companies that use non-standard materials will again dominate the market, the safety of life and property of the people will be seriously again. began to be threatened.
In this environment where the said inspections have been lifted, drivers must have their LPG vehicles serviced every 6 months or 10.000 km, and have their vehicles checked at LPG/CNG Gas Tightness Vehicle Control Stations of the Chamber of Mechanical Engineers. LPG vehicle drivers can have this check done at our stations free of charge, in case their vehicle smells of gas after the inspection.
In order to minimize accidents, our drivers must heed our warnings. Along with the issues that drivers and pedestrians should pay attention to, the relevant authorities also take the necessary precautions to ensure a safe journey for our citizens.zamI should take care.
We wish you a happy holiday and wish you a good trip.
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