Injured in a rental car or taxi crash in Türkiye: Who pays your medical and disability claims?

Strict Vehicle Keeper Liability under Turkish Law

Under the Turkish Highway Traffic Act (Karayolları Trafik Kanunu, Law No. 2918, Article 85), liability for bodily injuries caused by motor vehicles is not purely fault-based. The vehicle’s registered keeper or commercial operator (işleten) is held to a standard of strict risk liability (kusursuz sorumluluk).

The keeper answers for the driver's fault as for his own. That liability is not unlimited: under art. 86 the keeper is released if he proves the accident resulted from force majeure or from the gross fault of the injured party or a third party, and where he is not released the court may reduce the award for the injured party's own contributory fault.

If you were a passenger in a taxi, transfer van or dolmuş, you may claim directly against the vehicle's compulsory motor insurer under art. 1478 of the Turkish Commercial Code — but only up to the sum insured, with any loss above the policy limit pursued against the keeper and the driver. Medical treatment costs following a traffic accident are a separate matter: under art. 98 of Law No. 2918 they are met by the Social Security Institution (SGK), not claimed from the motor insurer.

Who Answers for a Hired Car: İşleten, Renter and Insurer

The word that decides most rental-car cases is işleten. Under art. 3 of Law No. 2918 the person registered as owner is the keeper, but in cases of long-term hire, loan or pledge the hirer becomes the keeper instead. On an ordinary short tourist rental of days or weeks, the rental company therefore normally remains the işleten and carries the strict liability under art. 85; on a long-term lease that liability shifts to the hirer. The article also allows the position to be displaced where it is proved that another person operates the vehicle on his own account and at his own risk with actual control over it.

That produces three separate relationships, which are easy to confuse:

• The rental company towards injured third parties. As işleten on a short rental it is strictly liable under art. 85, and its compulsory motor policy (ZMSS) responds to third-party bodily injury and property damage up to the sums insured.
• You, as the driver, towards injured third parties. Driver liability is fault-based under the general law of tort (TBK art. 49). Where you were at fault, the ZMSS insurer of the vehicle pays the third party and may then have recourse against you in the cases set out in the policy's general conditions — driving without a valid licence, under the influence, or leaving the scene among them.
• You, towards the rental company. This is contractual. ZMSS does not cover damage to the rented vehicle itself; that is what the optional own-damage cover (kasko, sold as CDW or similar) is for, and it almost always carries an excess (muafiyet) plus exclusions. Read what the excess is before you sign, because the deposit is usually set against it.

Deposits, Damage Charges and the Consumer Route

A dispute about a withheld deposit or a damage charge is a contractual matter under the Turkish Code of Obligations, and the rental company must prove the damage, its cause and its cost rather than simply retaining the security. Where you hired the car as a consumer — for personal use rather than for a business — Consumer Protection Law No. 6502 applies as well, which matters for two reasons: unfair terms in a standard-form rental contract do not bind you, and the dispute goes to the consumer route rather than the ordinary courts.

That route runs through the tüketici hakem heyeti for claims below the annually revised monetary threshold and through the tüketici mahkemesi above it. Both are cheap to use and can be run from abroad under a power of attorney. Keep the signed check-out and check-in condition reports, dated photographs of the vehicle at collection and return, the rental agreement with its excess and exclusions, and any charge slip taken against your card.

The Compulsory Motor Third-Party Liability Insurer (ZMSS)

In Türkiye, every registered motor vehicle is required by law to carry Compulsory Motor Third-Party Liability Insurance (Zorunlu Mali Sorumluluk Sigortası — ZMSS). The cover carries per-person and per-accident limits that are fixed for each policy year; the limits of the policy year in which the accident occurred are the ones that apply, and loss above them is pursued against the keeper and driver.

Claims can be pursued directly against the Turkish insurance company through two parallel channels:

1. The Insurance Arbitration Commission (Sigorta Tahkim Komisyonu): A specialized, highly efficient arbitral tribunal established under Insurance Law No. 5684. Under art. 30/16 the arbitrators must decide within four months of their appointment, extendable only by the express written consent of both parties.
2. The Commercial & Civil Courts of First Instance: Where complex multi-party claims or supplementary non-pecuniary moral damages (manevi tazminat) against the individual driver are brought.

What If the Driver Was Uninsured or Fled the Scene? (Güvence Hesabı)

If the at-fault vehicle was uninsured, cannot be identified, or had been stolen or hijacked and the keeper is not liable, a claim can be made to the Assurance Account (Güvence Hesabı) established under art. 14 of Insurance Law No. 5684. In those cases the Account covers death and bodily injury — including loss of support — up to the valid limits of the compulsory cover in question, not without limit. Damage to property is not covered unless the President has so decided, and medical treatment costs remain with the Social Security Institution under art. 98 of Law No. 2918.

What Compensation Can You Recover?

Under the Turkish Code of Obligations (TBK Articles 53–56), foreign claimants can recover:

• Permanent Disability Compensation (Sürekli İş Göremezlik): Actuarial loss of lifetime earnings based on medical disability percentage scores and official mortality tables (TRH-2010).
• Temporary Incapacity (Geçici İş Göremezlik): Compensation for lost wages while recovering and unable to work.
• Medical and Repatriation Expenses: Hospital surgery costs, emergency air ambulance, and specialized medical apparatus.
• Loss of Support (Destekten Yoksun Kalma): Monetary support claims for spouses, children, and dependent parents in fatal accident cases.
• Moral Damages (Manevi Tazminat): Compensation for pain and suffering under TBK arts. 56 and 47. Note that the ZMSS general conditions exclude non-pecuniary damages, so this head is pursued against the keeper and the driver rather than against the compulsory motor insurer.

Handling the Claim from Your Home Country

You do not need to stay in Türkiye or fly back for legal proceedings. Once you sign an apostilled Power of Attorney, your Turkish counsel obtains the official police accident report (kaza tespit tutanağı), collects hospital epicrisis records, and instructs the official medical board that determines the disability rating. Where a claim is paid, funds can be remitted to an account abroad.

Scope. This page is general information about Turkish law and procedure. It is not legal advice, it is not an assessment of your situation, and reading it does not create a lawyer-client relationship. Statutory figures, thresholds and rates are revised periodically — check the current position before relying on any of them. Any particular case turns on its own documents and facts.

Frequently Asked Questions