ANKARA, Aug 28 (AFP) - One person was killed when a train crashed into a car in western Turkey on Saturday in the latest of a string of deadly accidents that have triggered public outcry over the country's ageing railway system, officials said.
The accident ocurred when the car attempted to cross over tracks near a spot which was once a level crossing but was later closed, a spokesman for Turkey's state-run railway authority, Mehmet Ayci, told AFP.
The driver of the car perished in the accident, which happened near the town of Muradiye in the province of Manisa, he said.
The train dragged the vehicle for a while and then smashed it into two, according to Anatolia news agency.
In a separate incident, a freighter train derailed near the capital Ankara late on Friday, but there were no casualties, the agency said.
A series of accidents in the past two months have embarrassed the Turkish government and prompted calls for a major overhaul of the country's decades-old railway system.
A newly-inaugurated fast train derailed in northwestern Turkey on July 22, killing 37 people and injuring some 80 others.
Another eight people perished and 88 were injured three weeks later when two trains collided head-on in the same region.
Also in July, 15 people were killed when a train slammed into a minibus in a western region when the vehicle attempted to pass the level crossing as the barriers were closing off the railroad.