Three spectators were killed and two other were severely injured in an accident during a drag race in the Southern Turkey resort of Antalya, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. The race was valid for the Turkey Opet Drag Racing Championship, named after its sponsor, Opet.
Midway the dragstrip a still-unnamed competitor racing on the right-side lane experienced a mechanical failure on his vehicle, which crossed over to the other side of the track. Thousands of spectators were lined up along the whole extension of the dragstrip, without any sort of barrier, fence or any safety device between them and the track. The vehicle careered off the road and ploughed into the spectators at high speed, mowing many of them. Three young spectators - İbrahim Özer (age 20), İbrahim Uzun (18) and Orhan Bozkurt (13) - were instantly killed. The wreckage was strew over a wide area, and the car landed upside-down in a patch of rough ground besides the dragstrip. The driver was also injured, being expected to undergo surgery; his lawyer declared that his client would give a statement to a prosecutor after the operation.
R.I.P