Pallets Left on the Road in Batman Caused an Accident: The Victim Citizen is Being Shuffled from Institution to Institution

The traffic accident that occurred around Oduncular Sitesi in Batman happened due to heavy pallets left on the road without supervision. İslam Demir, a citizen who did not notice two heavy pallets stacked on top of each other on the road when leaving his house, crashed into these obstacles during his return. Due to the impact of the collision, severe material damage occurred in the lower part of his vehicle. Traffic police who arrived at the scene immediately after the incident determined in the report they prepared following their inspection that the driver was entirely faultless in the accident. Police teams advised the victim citizen to submit the invoice to the municipality to cover the damage.

Upon the instructions of law enforcement, Demir met with Municipality officials and believed the process would be easily resolved when he submitted his documents. Municipality officials also pledged that the payment would be made upon presentation of the invoice and necessary documents. Upon this, the victim had his vehicle repaired and prepared the invoices and a detailed parts list, requesting coverage only for the parts costs. Without even demanding additional expenses such as labor costs, he submitted the official documents to the relevant department, asking only for 16-17 thousand liras out of his own pocket for parts. However, it would soon become clear that things would not go as smoothly as thought.

After submitting the invoices, the victim citizen expressed his grievance, stating that he was caught in the middle of a complete bureaucratic impasse. Officials constantly began redirecting his file to different institutions and departments. The citizen, who was constantly being passed around between institutions with phrases like 'Go to that municipality, go to this municipality, check the Public Works Department, go to the Highways,' could not find a concrete interlocutor to listen to him despite his petitions and submitted documents. Demir, who had to cover his vehicle's damage with his own means, suffered both material and moral distress due to the lack of a solution.

While this bureaucratic process, in which the victim citizen was dragged between institutions, continued, a much greater grievance awaited him. Before the wound caused by the first accident could be healed, a second accident occurred this time while he was driving, as a municipal vehicle squeezed him. Demir, who had to maneuver during this incident, hit another vehicle on the road. This chain of events multiplied the existing material damage, further increasing the burden on the citizen.

Stating that after the second accident the damage to his vehicle reached approximately 300 thousand TL and that the cost of the other vehicle he hit also fell to him, Demir noted that he was in great despair. Because the owner of the other vehicle did not make any payment, the victim, who had to pay the cost of that damaged vehicle as well, was left alone with a very high amount in total. Addressing the authorities, Demir demands that his official documents be examined, the problem be resolved as soon as possible, and his grievance be remedied. This incident reveals how deeply issues such as the lack of inspection of dangerous objects left on the road and inter-institutional miscommunication affect ordinary citizens.