We continue our weekly round up of the local news from Fethiye, Muğla and surrounding area.

Faralya Road Claims Life of Russian Driver

The road to Faralya from Oludeniz is a spectacular route that winds and clings to the side of the steep cliffs.

However, it has claimed a number of lives over the year.

The latest is Irina Özkara, a 31-year-old Russian woman living in Faralya.

She was driving into Fethiye when, around 5km from Faralya, she lost control of her car and plummeted 100m down the cliff face.

No-one saw the accident happen, and it wasn't until some time later that local fishermen saw the car and phoned the Jandarma.

AKUT, the rescue service, was called out and had to lower people on ropes to reach the car and recover Irina's body.

Paragliding Death Court Case Continues

The case of the young Turkish man from Bursa who fell to his death last September while paragliding from Babadağ, came up in court again this week.

Readers who have been following this case, will recall that it was previously adjourned for reports from experts, one of which had still not arrived when the case reconvened.

It has now been adjourned until 9th February to await the missing report.

Fire Statistics 2011

The local Fire Brigade released its annual statistics for 2011 which showed it attended 112 fires in which 2 people died.

The Brigade also responded to 25 calls from people locked out of their homes – seemingly they employ a crow bar in such cases.

Police Statistics 2011

The Regional Head of Police gave a press conference in Muğla at which he rolled out his figures for 2011.

The number of 155 calls to police is going up year on year.

In 2009 it was 16,338; in 2010 it grew to 23,672; last year it hit 27,161.

This is seen as a positive indication of people having faith in the police force.

Of the 27,161 emergency calls, police actually investigated 17,150 incidents and charged a total of 13,974 people, with 995 cases still being investigated.

Road traffic accidents resulted in injury to 3,491 and 50 deaths.

However, fines for traffic and vehicle violations fell last year, which would seem to indicate drivers are paying more attention to the rules.

Total fines in 2010 amounted to 20.43 million TL, which fell significantly to 15.79 million during 2011.

In conclusion he stated that

'the majority of residents of Muğla province live their lives in peace and safety'

and we say long may that continue.