17 killed as bus carrying agricultural workers rolls over in southern Turkey

Seventeen people were killed and 28 were injured after a bus rolled over and fell into a ditch in the southern province of Isparta in the morning hours of Oct. 31.

The bus was carrying a group of agriculture laborers, mostly women, working in a plantation of apple trees near the district of Yalvaç, officials have said. Many of the injured are in serious condition.

The accident is believed to have been caused by a brake failure, according to initial findings, Yalvaç District Governor Ahmet Altıntaş said. The bus first crashed into a retaining wall on the roadside before rolling over.

Ambulances and firefighters were dispatched to the scene following the accident.

The incident is the latest in a series of deadly accidents that have taken place on Turkish highways over the past year. Eight people died last week after a bus carrying university students crashed near the western Anatolian province of Eskişehir. In another accident last month, 13 people were killed in Antalya after the driver of their bus fell asleep at the wheel.