"An Accident". A story set in Alanya.

An accident story in Alanya. (A True Story)

This is the story of an accident that a foreign national person had in Turkey. Let's call this person John. John was on his motorcycle at a red light. He started to move on the green light. Suddenly, a driver from the side road was most likely passing a red light and crashed into John's motorcycle. John was taken to the hospital with serious cuts and bleeding on his body. When John was taken to the hospital, he was unconscious. A few days after the accident, John managed to survive and finally opens his eyes. The police team comes to John's room to demand a statement from John, who is not yet fully conscious. Due to the fact that he is a foreign national person, it is obligatory to take the statement of the person with a sworn translator. For this reason, there is a translator with the police team. The statement of John begins to be taken and the translator tells the police what he heard from the person by translating them into Turkish. In this way, statement minutes are written in Turkish in accordance with the law. However, the content of the written minutes does match in any way what John had said in his statement.

What John actually said;

I was on my motorcycle and I was waiting at a red light. When the lights turned green, I started moving. As I was moving, a car suddenly running through the side road, probably running a red light, hit me. I wasn't conscious enough to realize what was going on. After a few days passed, I woke up in the hospital room with pain and stitches in many parts of my body. I didn't do anything to deserve any of these things, I drove in traffic according to the rules and I always paid attention to this. I suffer greatly because of the insensitive and unruly behavior of the other party. For all these reasons, I want to report the person who hit me.

The sworn translator did not translate what John said, almost ignoring John's statements. He deliberately mistranslated John's demands to the police.

The following is a summary of what the translator actually translated;

"This accident was entirely my fault. I was not careful that day. I don't want to file a complaint against anyone..."

In the meantime; The investigation of the incident had already been made by the prosecutor's office. The camera records of the accident and the accident reports are kept by the police immediately. However, the translation is done by the translator, accompanied by the police at the hospital, and John signed a paper that he doesn't even know what it says. The statement given becomes accepted as correct as a result of this signature and caused the blame to be seen as that of John.

All these explanations show us: A meeting took place between the Sworn Translator and the other party before the moment of the statement, and an agreement was made regarding the violation of the rights of the foreign person.

If you have an accident in Turkey, you can state that you are not in a position to give a statement at the moment, that you feel unwell and want to give a statement later with your lawyer. They can not force you. It is easy to protect your rights. For this kind of situation, I suggest you elect to work with an experienced lawyer who can speak your language and a translator you trust. Keep in mind that once you sign a statement that says you’re not going to sue the other party, you lose that right. It is not officially possible to open a case against the other party later.

Stay safe.