Üsküdar Üniversitesi organized the "Traffic and Safe Driving Symposium" to draw attention to traffic safety and driving awareness. The symposium, held with the participation of expert academics and sector representatives, covered topics such as traffic safety, safe driving techniques, and driver behavior.
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: “Providing training that will reduce risky behaviors and control the mood of individuals in traffic is very important for traffic psychology. With anger management training, traffic accidents decrease by more than 50%.”
Prof. Dr. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin: “One million people die every year worldwide from traffic accidents. Our country also gets its share. The vast majority of faults are human-induced.”
Dr. Lecturer Rüştü Uçan: “My recommendation is that after fatal or seriously injurious motorcycle accidents, the teams arriving at the scene must take the driver's helmet. If the helmets are not in compliance with standards after inspection, then the company should be prosecuted as the primary culprit in that fatal accident.”
Road and Traffic Safety Consultant Özgür Şener: “We lose one of our districts to traffic accidents every year.”
Üsküdar Üniversitesi organized the "Traffic and Safe Driving Symposium" to draw attention to traffic safety and driving awareness. It was held on Wednesday, March 19, 2025, at the Çarşı Campus Emirnebi 1 Conference Hall, in memory of Ahmet Mete Kocamaz, Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights Expert at the R&D and Innovation Policies Directorate, who passed away in a traffic accident last November.
The opening speeches were delivered by Dr. Lecturer Rüştü Uçan, Head of Occupational Health and Safety Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Üsküdar Üniversitesi, and President of MESKA Foundation; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Müge Ensari Özay, Faculty Member of the Occupational Health and Safety Department, Üsküdar Üniversitesi; Prof. Dr. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Üsküdar Üniversitesi; and Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, Founding Rector and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Üsküdar Üniversitesi.
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan: “It is very difficult for a person to grow up, but we can lose them in a motorcycle accident.”
Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, Founding Rector and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Üsküdar Üniversitesi, commemorated Ahmet Mete Kocamaz, who died in a motorcycle accident, saying, “He had made a beautiful start with us, he was doing good things, and he was going to… But it was divine will… Of course, this meeting was held because of him. We need to draw some lessons from this. It is very difficult for a person to grow up, but we can lose them unexpectedly in a small accident, a motorcycle accident.”
“People who ride motorcycles have a risky behavior gene”
Pointing to the question “Who rides motorcycles?”, Prof. Dr. Tarhan said, “Generally, you see that people who ride motorcycles have a risky behavior gene. This gene is also present in hyperactive people. They love risk. They love danger. Of course, measured, calculable risk brings a person closer to their goal, allowing them to make more progress, but life is not just under one's own control. There are drivers on the other side who are not under one's control, there is road safety. Many factors come into play. For this reason, even with a helmet, fatal accidents occur. In major accidents, a helmet is of no use.”
“Training should be given to reduce individuals' risky behaviors in traffic”
Prof. Dr. Tarhan stated, “Providing training that will reduce individuals' risky behaviors and control their mood in traffic is very important for traffic psychology,” and continued as follows:
“If you're wondering what's being done about this, you can ask ChatGPT. When you ask what's being done about traffic, it will immediately tell you: Positive psychology studies. I asked ChatGPT, and I was surprised. It explained what positive psychology can provide regarding traffic safety and driving. It says it's important for a person to be in a positive emotional state and to be able to self-regulate and control anger. It emphasizes that these should be taught. It also states that training related to resilience and patience is beneficial. All of these are already training conducted in positive psychology. It changes a person's perspective on events. When we look at traffic accidents, all sources generally state that the human factor is effective in 90 percent of cases.”
“Lack of anger control is the biggest cause of accidents in traffic”
Prof. Dr. Tarhan stated that most of the altercations after traffic accidents are usually related to emotional reactions, saying, “People cannot stop, think, and act at that moment. Therefore, training for these individuals needs to be focused on awareness, protection, and prevention. While giving attention training or conducting psychotechnical applications is useful, the most important thing is how people should be educated to prevent traffic accidents. This education needs to be provided in schools. It is essential for driving education related to traffic to be taught as a subject in schools and for anger management skills to be acquired. At least if anger control is achieved, many problems can be prevented. Because the lack of anger control is the biggest cause of accidents in traffic. With anger management training, traffic accidents decrease by more than 50%.”
Prof. Dr. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin: “We have produced very fast-moving machines and devices”
Prof. Dr. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Üsküdar Üniversitesi, pointed out that people are now trying to get everywhere faster, quicker, and in less time, saying, “More people are traveling. For this reason, we have produced machines and devices that moved very slowly before, but now move very quickly. A tiny device, thousands of horsepower... When you sit on it, I don't know whether to call it an incredible power intoxication or what. We see that people who are as calm as angels transform into an unfamiliar group of people when they get behind the wheel.”
Prof. Dr. Arif Aktuğ Ertekin also stated that adolescence is particularly important in vehicle use, and continued as follows:
“Because adolescents' fundamental learning system loves to learn by taking risks. When we talk about traffic, we shouldn't just look at it as moving devices. To make them move, we build roads, destroy nature, lay asphalt, use chemicals, pollute the air, heat the world, and the climate changes. We have moved from fossil fuels to electricity today. I think these are also important. One million people die worldwide from traffic accidents every year. Our country also gets its share. The vast majority of faults are human-induced.”
Dr. Lecturer Rüştü Uçan: “Total fatal accident count in 2023 was 6,548”
Dr. Lecturer Rüştü Uçan, Head of Occupational Health and Safety Department, Faculty of Health Sciences, Üsküdar Üniversitesi, and President of MESKA Foundation, stated that 1,314,136 traffic accidents occurred in 2023, and that the number of fatal and injury accidents was 235,071, the number of material damage accidents was 1,079,065, and the total number of fatal accidents was 6,548 in 2023.
“Even these figures show what a big problem we are facing,” said Dr. Lecturer Rüştü Uçan, adding that the total number of deaths in traffic accidents in 2023 increased by 25.2 percent compared to the previous year.
“We don't use seatbelts in the back seat”
Touching upon the topic of seatbelts, Dr. Lecturer Rüştü Uçan stated, “We have generally gotten used to using seatbelts in the front seat, but we don't use them in the back seat, and we see a very big deficiency in this.”
Also pointing to motorcycle accidents, Dr. Lecturer Rüştü Uçan explained that in 2022, the number of automobiles was 14,269,352, and the number of motorcycles was 4,141,914, with the number of motorcycles increasing every year. Looking at accidents, in 2022, a total of 830 drivers died in automobile accidents, and 696 drivers died in motorcycle accidents. While the death rate for automobile drivers was 6 per hundred thousand, it increased to 17 per hundred thousand for motorcycle drivers, meaning there were three times more deaths among motorcycle riders.
“Helmet of accident-involved motorcycle driver should be examined”
Stating that he has also worked as an expert witness for years, Dr. Lecturer Rüştü Uçan noted the following:
“My recommendation, especially after fatal or seriously injurious motorcycle accidents, is that the teams arriving at the scene must take the driver's helmet. If the helmet did not provide the necessary protection; a conformity inspection should be carried out with new helmets obtained from the helmet's manufacturer or importer, and if it is not compliant, this company should be prosecuted as the principal culprit in this fatal accident. The trade of the company that produces or imports helmets not providing the necessary protection should be prevented. This will contribute to preventing accidents and supporting genuinely safe helmet manufacturers.”
Müge Ensari Özay: “Establishing a safety culture is very important”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Müge Ensari Özay, Faculty Member of the Occupational Health and Safety Department, Üsküdar Üniversitesi, emphasized traffic safety, stating, “The most important thing I want to emphasize in terms of occupational safety and traffic safety is the establishment of a safety culture. Because unless we internalize and create this culture, it will be difficult to prevent and stop accidents. We try to ensure compliance with certain rules through penal sanctions. While penal sanctions are necessary, I believe that internalizing a safety culture is what's truly important. For this, the education given to students from an early age, perhaps starting from kindergarten to primary school, is very crucial.”
“To prevent accidents, we must establish a safety culture”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Müge Ensari Özay noted that a child who grows up with the understanding that ‘whoever is the driver in a car is always right, others are wrong’ behaves the same way in the future, saying, “The moment they get into the car seat, even though they are normally a much calmer person, they feel a different power while driving that car and can do very dangerous things, drive dangerously. Therefore, to prevent these accidents, we must establish a safety culture. Of course, education is necessary, and laws, regulations, rules, and penal sanctions are also important. However, all of these can only be effective to a certain extent unless we fundamentally establish a safety culture.”
We lose one district every year in traffic accidents…
In the first session of the event, Özgür Şener, Lecturer at the Occupational Health and Safety Department, Üsküdar Üniversitesi, and Road and Traffic Safety Consultant, stated that he would address risks and survival strategies in traffic under the title “Surviving in Traffic,” saying, “Today, surviving in traffic is becoming increasingly difficult; the risk of accidents and injuries is rising. We are pioneering in Turkey by providing Road Traffic Safety lessons to Occupational Safety undergraduate students, and we have been continuing this practice for 3 years.”
Özgür Şener stated that an average of 3,600 traffic accidents occur every day in Turkey, saying, “This means that we are constantly facing danger while continuing our normal lives. The figure of 6,548, representing the number of people who lost their lives in traffic accidents in 2023, is actually equivalent to the population of many districts in Turkey. In other words, every year, we lose almost a district to traffic accidents. The figure of 350,000, showing the number of injured people, is just as striking as the deaths. This number is greater than the population of many of our provinces such as Bilecik, Burdur, Kırıkkale, Bartın, Sinop, and Rize. In other words, every year, we injure the population of one of our provinces in traffic accidents.”
Özgür Şener also stated that the rate of those who lose a relative or are injured in traffic accidents in Turkey is 1 in 7, adding, “The loss of 18 billion TL, which reveals the economic dimension of traffic accidents, is almost equivalent to the annual budget of one of our ministries.”
“Traffic accidents rank first in deaths among 5-29 year olds”
“According to World Health Organization data, traffic accidents rank first in deaths among those aged 5-29. This bitter truth shows that we are losing our young population in traffic accidents,” said Özgür Şener, adding, “Although our energy is high and our risk perception is low at a young age, we should not act with the thought of ‘nothing will happen to me in traffic.’ Remember, traffic is a very dangerous environment, and setting out without taking precautions means risking our lives.”
The symposium, held with the participation of expert academics and sector representatives, covered topics such as traffic safety, safe driving techniques, and driver behavior. A group photo was also taken at the symposium.
On the other hand, participants also had the opportunity to experience the consequences of rolling over without a seatbelt in the ‘Seatbelt Simulator’ set up in the university garden.