Probe into deaths of 15 in northern Turkey bridge collapse closed

A prosecution office has closed the case of a bridge collapse in Turkey's northern province of Zonguldak in 2012 which killed 15 people, as no permission was given for an investigation into the responsible state institutions which were found guilty in an expert report. 

Some 48 meters of the 252 meter-long Çaycuma Bridge over the Filyos Creek in Zonguldak collapsed on April 6, 2012. One minibus carrying 11 people, one automobile and four pedestrians crossing the 61-year-old bridge were swept away in the water below. Two passengers in the automobile were rescued the same day, while 15 people died. 

The Çaycuma Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has concluded the investigation three years after the accident by ruling there was no need to take any action against the Çaycuma Municipality, the Highways' 15th Regional Directorship or Turkey's General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works' (DS?) 232nd Branch Office, which were responsible for the bridge and towards which the investigation was launched, as permission for the investigations into the institutions had not been granted. 

The prosecutor's office said the Kastamonu Governorate did not give permission for an investigation of the Highways Directorship, the Zonguldak Governorate did not grant permission for an investigation into the DS? office and the Interior Ministry did not allow for a probe of the Çaycuma Municipality. 

The decision said investigation permission towards the three institutions was needed according to law but as the permission had not been given and the objections to that decision were also rejected, all the legal remedies had been consumed. 

"Therefore, it has been decided that there is no need to take action against the people for which preliminary...