Car Accident in Turkey as a Foreigner: Compensation, Insurance and Time Limits

A foreigner injured in a road traffic accident in Turkey (Türkiye) can claim compensation from the vehicle's operator, the driver and — directly — the vehicle's compulsory liability insurer, on the same terms as a Turkish citizen. The operator of a motor vehicle is liable for death, injury and property damage caused by its operation without the victim having to prove the operator's fault (Highway Traffic Law No. 2918, Art. 85). Before suing the insurer, the victim must apply to it in writing; if it does not reply within 15 days or the reply is unsatisfactory, the victim may sue or go to insurance arbitration (Art. 97). Claims are time-barred two years after the victim learns of the damage and the person liable, and in any case ten years after the accident (Art. 109).

This guide explains what to do at the scene, who is liable, what can be claimed, how the insurance claim and any court case proceed, and how the criminal side of an accident works — including for a foreign driver who caused one.

• Liability: the operator is liable for damage caused by the operation of a motor vehicle (Art. 85).
• Compulsory insurance: every operator must hold liability insurance (Art. 91); the victim can claim directly against the insurer.
• Medical treatment: costs arising from traffic accidents are covered by the Social Security Institution whether or not the victim has social security (Art. 98).
• Written application to the insurer first; 15 days to reply (Art. 97).
• Payment: within 8 working days of submission of the required documents (Art. 99).
• Limitation: 2 years from knowledge, 10 years from the accident; longer where the act is a crime with a longer limitation period (Art. 109).
• Applicable law: Turkish law, as the law of the place of the accident (Law No. 5718, Art. 34).

Legal status of this guide. It reflects the Highway Traffic Law (No. 2918), the Code of Obligations (No. 6098) and Law No. 5718 as currently in force. Insurance cover limits, and the general conditions of compulsory motor insurance that define what the insurer pays, are set annually and by regulation. Last updated: October 2026.

In this guide

• At the scene
• Who is liable
• The compulsory insurance and other sources
• What you can claim
• Medical treatment costs
• Fault and contributory fault
• Making the claim, step by step
• Time limits
• The criminal case
• If you were the driver
• Pursuing the claim from abroad
• Frequently asked questions

At the scene

Those involved in a traffic accident must stop at once without creating further danger, take safety measures at the scene, leave the scene unchanged where there is death, injury or damage — including traces useful for establishing liability — unless traffic or safety requires otherwise, give their identity, address, driving licence, registration and insurance details to the others involved on request, and report the accident to the authorities (Art. 81).

1. Call 112. Where anyone is injured or killed, police or gendarmerie must attend and draw up the official accident report.
2. Medical help first. Go to hospital even if injuries seem minor; the first medical record is central to the claim.
3. Record everything: photographs of the vehicles, plates, positions, road markings, signs, skid marks, lighting and weather; names and phone numbers of witnesses; the other driver's licence, registration and insurance policy number; dashcam or nearby camera locations.
4. The accident report. For accidents with material damage only, the drivers may complete the standard agreed-statement form themselves; for accidents with injury or death, the report is drawn up by the police. Do not sign a statement in Turkish that you cannot read; ask for an interpreter, or write that you do not understand.
5. Do not admit fault or agree a cash settlement at the roadside.
6. Alcohol test. Drivers are tested. Refusal has its own consequences.
7. Rental car: notify the rental company immediately; rental agreements usually make cover conditional on an official report and an alcohol test.
8. Keep every receipt from that moment on.

Who is liable

Person	Basis	Nature of liability
Operator of the vehicle (işleten) — usually the registered owner, long-term lessee or the person who runs the vehicle on their own account	Law No. 2918, Art. 85	Strict: liable for death, injury and property damage caused by the operation of the vehicle, without proof of the operator's fault. The operator is also answerable for the fault of the driver and of those assisting in the use of the vehicle.
Owner of the enterprise under whose name the vehicle is operated — bus, taxi, transfer and tour companies	Art. 85	Jointly and severally liable with the operator
Driver	Code of Obligations, Art. 49	Fault-based tort liability
Compulsory liability insurer	Law No. 2918, Art. 91, 97	Directly liable to the victim within the policy limits
Other parties — road authority, employer, vehicle manufacturer	General rules	Where road defects, employment relationships or product defects contributed

These persons are jointly liable: the victim may claim the whole from any of them, and they settle among themselves afterwards. The operator is released only by proving that the accident was caused by force majeure or by the gross fault of the victim or of a third party, without any fault on the part of the operator or those for whom the operator is responsible and without a defect in the vehicle contributing.

Where a vehicle has caused death or injury, the law also provides for measures preventing its transfer or encumbrance, to secure the victims' claims (Art. 85).

The compulsory insurance and other sources

• Compulsory motor third-party liability insurance (zorunlu mali sorumluluk sigortası, "traffic insurance"). Operators must take it out to cover their liability under Article 85 (Art. 91). It covers bodily injury, death and property damage to third parties up to limits set each year, separately per person and per accident.
• Voluntary additional liability cover (ihtiyari mali mesuliyet), often part of a comprehensive policy, covers amounts above the compulsory limits and, depending on the policy, moral damages.
• Passenger insurance — compulsory seat insurance for commercial passenger transport, and carrier's liability cover.
• The Assurance Account (Güvence Hesabı). A statutory fund that compensates bodily injury and death, within the compulsory limits, where the vehicle responsible is uninsured, unidentified (hit-and-run), stolen, or its insurer is insolvent.
• Foreign-registered vehicles are covered through the Green Card system or border insurance; claims are handled through the Turkish Motor Insurers' Bureau.
• Your own cover — travel insurance, private health insurance, the comprehensive policy on your own or a rental vehicle — may pay first and then recover from those liable.

The insurer must pay amounts within the compulsory insurance limits within eight working days from the date the entitled person delivers the documents specified in the general conditions (Art. 99).

What you can claim

Head of damage	Content
Treatment and care costs	Hospital, medication, rehabilitation, prostheses, travel for treatment, carer costs — to the extent not already covered by the Social Security Institution
Loss of earnings	Income lost during the period of temporary incapacity
Permanent incapacity	Loss arising from reduction or loss of working capacity, calculated by actuarial expert report on the basis of the disability rate, age and income; also payable to those without a current income, on a notional basis
Harm to economic future	Losses arising from damage to career prospects
In case of death: funeral expenses, treatment costs before death, and loss of support	Compensation to those who were, or would have been, supported by the deceased — spouse, children, parents — calculated actuarially
Property damage	Repair cost or value of the vehicle, loss of value, loss of use, damaged belongings
Moral damages	A sum for pain and suffering to the injured person, and to close relatives in case of death or serious injury (Code of Obligations, Art. 56). Moral damages are claimed from the operator and driver; the compulsory policy does not cover them.

Compensation for bodily injury and death is assessed under the Code of Obligations. Permanent incapacity is established by a medical board report from an authorised hospital, giving a disability percentage under the applicable regulation, and the amount is then calculated by an actuarial expert. For a foreign victim, income earned abroad and the home country's retirement age and life expectancy can be put forward with documents.

Medical treatment costs

The cost of health services provided because of traffic accidents by university hospitals and all other public and private health institutions is met by the Social Security Institution, regardless of whether the injured person has social security coverage, under the reimbursement rules that apply to persons with general health insurance (Art. 98). A foreign tourist injured in a traffic accident is therefore treated at the Institution's expense within those rules.

In practice: tell the hospital that the injury results from a traffic accident and give the accident report details. Costs outside the scope of that provision — private-room supplements, treatments beyond the reimbursement rules, treatment after returning home — remain recoverable from the liable parties and their insurer as part of the damages claim. Keep all invoices and medical reports, and obtain a full copy of the hospital file before leaving Turkey.

Fault and contributory fault

• Fault allocation. The police report gives an initial view. In the criminal and civil proceedings, fault is determined by expert reports — from traffic experts, university departments or the Forensic Medicine Institute — which allocate percentages between the parties. The court is not bound by the police report.
• Contributory fault. If the victim contributed — not wearing a seat belt or helmet, crossing against a signal, knowingly travelling with a drunk driver — compensation is reduced in proportion.
• Passengers in either vehicle are third parties and can claim against the operator and insurer of the vehicle at fault, including the one they were travelling in.
• Pedestrians and cyclists benefit from the operator's strict liability.
• Alcohol. A driver's intoxication does not relieve the insurer of its obligation to the victim; the insurer may recover from its own insured afterwards.

Making the claim, step by step

1. Gather the file: accident report; statements; photographs; alcohol test results; vehicle registration and insurance details; hospital records, epicrisis and invoices; proof of income; for death, the death certificate, burial documents and proof of family relationship; for foreign documents, apostille and sworn translation.
2. Medical board report on permanent incapacity, once treatment has stabilised.
3. Written application to the insurer. Before bringing proceedings within the limits of the compulsory insurance, the injured person must apply in writing to the insurance company. If it does not reply in writing within 15 days of the application, or there is a dispute because the reply does not meet the claim, the injured person may sue or apply to arbitration under the Insurance Law (Art. 97).
4. Insurance Arbitration Commission. A specialised, document-based procedure that normally produces a decision within months. It deals with the insurer's liability under the policy; it does not decide moral damages against the driver.
5. Court. Claims against the operator and driver — including moral damages and amounts above the policy limits — are brought before the civil courts; claims involving the insurer fall within the commercial courts' field, for which mandatory mediation applies before filing. Venue options include the place of the accident, the defendant's domicile and, for the insurer, its head office or the branch or agency that issued the policy.
6. Interim security. Where there is a risk that the operator will dispose of assets, precautionary measures over the vehicle and other assets can be requested.
7. Settlement. Insurers often offer early settlements with a release. A release signed for an amount clearly inadequate to the loss can be challenged within a limited time, but it is far better to have the calculation checked before signing.

Time limits

• Two years and ten years. Claims for compensation of damage arising from motor vehicle accidents are time-barred two years from the date the injured person learned of the damage and of the person liable, and in any event ten years from the day of the accident (Art. 109(1)).
• Extended criminal period. If the claim arises from an act that is punishable and for which the criminal law provides a longer limitation period, that longer period applies to the compensation claim as well (Art. 109(2)). Since negligent injury and negligent killing are crimes, the civil claim usually benefits from the longer period — eight years for negligent injury, fifteen for negligent killing under the general rules.
• Against the insurer the same periods apply.
• Complaint period. For negligent injury prosecuted on complaint, the complaint must be made within six months of learning of the act and the offender.

Do not rely on the long stop: evidence — camera footage, witnesses, vehicle damage — disappears within days and weeks.

The criminal case

• Offences. Causing injury by negligence and causing death by negligence are offences under the Penal Code, with heavier penalties where several people are injured or killed and where the driver acted with conscious negligence — typically driving under the influence of alcohol or at grossly excessive speed. Driving in a condition unfit to drive safely because of alcohol or drugs is a separate offence, as is leaving an injured person without help.
• Complaint. Simple negligent injury is prosecuted on the victim's complaint; conscious negligence and negligent killing are prosecuted of the authorities' own motion.
• Conciliation. Negligent injury falls within the conciliation procedure, in which the suspect may agree to compensate the victim in return for closure of the file. Accepting conciliation in the criminal file can affect the civil claim; take advice before agreeing, and state expressly what the payment does and does not cover.
• Victim's rights. To request evidence, obtain documents, join the case as a participant, be assisted by an interpreter, and object to a decision not to prosecute within two weeks.
• Link to the civil claim. The civil court is not bound by an acquittal for lack of fault, but the facts established in a criminal conviction carry weight, and the expert reports in the criminal file are regularly used.

If you were the driver

• Stay at the scene, help the injured, call 112, and comply with the alcohol test.
• Your rights are those of any suspect: silence about the accusation, a lawyer, an interpreter, consular notification. See arrested in Turkey as a foreigner.
• Driving licence. A foreign licence may be used in Turkey for a limited period after entry; beyond that a Turkish licence is required. Driving without a valid licence complicates both the criminal case and insurance cover.
• Travel ban. In accidents with death or serious injury, courts frequently impose a ban on leaving the country until the investigation is complete. See judicial control and travel bans in Turkey.
• Insurance. Notify the insurer and the rental company at once. Insurers may refuse to cover the insured's own damage, and may recover from the driver what they pay to victims, where the driver was intoxicated or unlicensed.
• Compensating the victim early — through the insurer and personally where needed — is taken into account in conciliation and sentencing.

Pursuing the claim from abroad

• Applicable law and courts. Obligations arising from a tort are governed by the law of the country where the tort was committed (Law No. 5718, Art. 34(1)), and the injured party may bring the claim directly against the liable party's insurer where the applicable law allows (Art. 34(4)) — which Turkish law does. Turkish courts have jurisdiction at the place of the accident.
• Power of attorney. A lawyer can conduct the insurer application, arbitration, mediation, court case and criminal participation under a power of attorney issued at a Turkish consulate or before a local notary with apostille and translation.
• Medical evidence abroad. Treatment records from your home country are usable with sworn translations; the disability rate will normally need to be confirmed by a report meeting Turkish requirements, which can sometimes be prepared from the file.
• Your own insurer. If your travel or health insurer has paid, it may have a subrogated claim; coordinate so that losses are neither missed nor claimed twice.
• Security for costs may be required of a foreign claimant unless a treaty or reciprocity applies.

Injured in a traffic accident in Turkey, or lost a relative in one? Send the accident report, the date and place, and a summary of the injuries. Message Yayla Law on WhatsApp or use the contact form. Evidence at the scene and camera footage are lost quickly.

Frequently asked questions

Can a foreigner claim compensation for a car accident in Turkey?

Yes. Nationality and residence make no difference. The claim lies against the vehicle's operator, the driver and the compulsory liability insurer, under Turkish law as the law of the place of the accident.

Who pays my hospital bills after a traffic accident in Turkey?

The Social Security Institution meets the cost of health services arising from traffic accidents whether or not the injured person has social security, within its reimbursement rules. Costs beyond those rules can be claimed from the liable parties and their insurer.

Do I have to prove the driver was at fault?

Not against the operator, whose liability is strict: it arises from the operation of the vehicle. Fault matters for the driver's personal liability, for the criminal case and for any reduction because of your own contributory fault.

How long do I have to claim?

Two years from learning of the damage and the person liable, and ten years from the accident at the latest. Where the accident is also a crime with a longer limitation period, as with negligent injury or killing, that longer period applies.

Can I claim directly from the insurance company?

Yes. You must first apply to the insurer in writing. If it does not reply within 15 days or the reply is unsatisfactory, you may sue or apply to the Insurance Arbitration Commission.

What if the driver fled or had no insurance?

For bodily injury and death, the Assurance Account compensates within the compulsory insurance limits where the vehicle is unidentified, uninsured or stolen, or the insurer is insolvent.

What can the family claim in a fatal accident?

Funeral and pre-death treatment costs, compensation for loss of support for those the deceased supported or would have supported, and moral damages for close relatives.

Does the compulsory insurance cover pain and suffering?

No. Moral damages are claimed from the operator and driver, or from a voluntary liability policy if it includes them.

I caused an accident as a tourist. Can I leave Turkey?

Where there is death or serious injury, the court may impose a ban on leaving the country during the investigation. Stay at the scene, cooperate, notify your insurer and the rental company, and obtain a lawyer before giving a statement.

Legal basis and sources

• Highway Traffic Law No. 2918, Articles 81, 85, 91, 97–99 and 109 — official consolidated text at mevzuat.gov.tr.
• Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098, Articles 49–56 and 72.
• Act on Private International and Procedural Law No. 5718, Article 34.
• Insurance Law No. 5684 (Insurance Arbitration Commission; Assurance Account).

This article provides general legal information on Turkish law as of October 2026. It is not legal advice. Insurance limits and general conditions change; the value of a claim depends on medical and actuarial assessment.