Official figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) on Thursday indicate an increase of 3.9% in the number of traffic accidents registered in Türkiye last year when compared to the data a year earlier.

Out of a total of 1,232,957 accidents registered across the country in 2022, some 1,035,696 accidents were categorized as causing material damage while the number of crashes that resulted in death or injury was 197,261.

According to the statistics, the number of total accidents rose from 1,186,353 in 2021 to 1,232,957 last year with 82.5% of accidents taking place in the residential areas.

The statistics reveal that the number of people killed in accidents stood at 5,229, while another 288,696 individuals were injured. A slight majority of the fatalities died within 30 days of the accident after being taken to hospital, while a slight minority died at the scene of the accident.

Despite the overall increase in the number of accidents, which hit an eight-year-high, and the spike in the number of vehicles registered to traffic by 4.9%, the number of fatalities decreased by 2.5% when compared to data from 2021.

The number of people who lost their lives in accidents in 2021 was 5,362, while 274,615 others sustained injuries, according to official data.

The data provided by Turkstat also points to the reason behind the vast majority of the fatal accidents being drivers with 44.9%, whereas in 31.8% of the cases other passengers were held responsible, and in 23.3% of the accidents pedestrians were considered responsible.

The data also shed light based on gender, thus it was found that men made up a larger share of both fatalities and injuries with 76.7% and 69.4%, respectively.

According to the analysis of some 235,176 accidents that ended up either with fatalities or injuries, the statistical agency revealed that drivers were held accountable in 86.8% of the cases, while pedestrians were considered responsible in 9.5% of the cases.

Additionally, it was revealed that 66.9% out of approximately 197,261 incidents that occurred on the highways and claimed lives or left injuries took place during the day.

When the accidents and their consequences are evaluated according to the number of vehicles, 50.1% of the accidents that occurred in 2022 included two vehicles, 44.3% of them were with a single vehicle, and 5.6% were multi-vehicle accidents.

The highest number of fatal accidents took place in the month of August at 10%, and the least in February with 5.8%, the data highlighted.

The data for the first quarter of 2023 shared recently by the traffic department within the General Directorate of Security (EGM) revealed that traffic accidents claimed the lives of 782 people across Türkiye between January and the end of April in 159,132 accidents.

According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) report from June 2022 every year the lives of approximately 1.3 million people are cut short as a result of a road traffic crash. Between 20 million and 50 million more people suffer non-fatal injuries, with many incurring a disability as a result of their injury.