Long-Term Trends and Mortality Patterns of Technological Disasters in Türkiye: An EM-DAT-Based Analysis

Background: Technological disasters, including transport and industrial incidents, represent a significant but understudied component of the global disaster burden. Despite increasing industrialization and urbanization, comprehensive long term analyses at the country level remain limited. This study aimed to evaluate the distribution, mortality patterns, and temporal trends of technological disasters in Türkiye. Methods: This retrospective epidemiological study analyzed technological disasters recorded in the EM-DAT database between 1978 and 2025. Disasters were classified into transport, industrial, and miscellaneous categories, with further subtype analysis. Primary outcomes included the distribution of disaster types, total deaths, deaths per event, and temporal trends. Results: A total of 172 technological disasters were identified. Transport-related events accounted for the majority of cases (73.8%), with road accidents being the most frequent subtype (41.3%). Transport disasters contributed the highest total mortality (n=2,923), whereas industrial disasters demonstrated the highest mortality per event (49.3 deaths/event). Subtype analysis revealed that explosions and collapses were the most lethal mechanisms, with industrial explosions showing the highest mortality (60.4 deaths/event). Although disaster frequency increased over time, this trend was not statistically significant (03b2 = 0.044, p = 0.10), and no significant difference in mortality was observed across disaster types (Kruskal2013Wallis H = 0.621, p = 0.733). Mortality per event declined over time, from 36.4 deaths per event (197820131989) to 24.3 (201020132025). Conclusion: Technological disasters in Türkiye are predominantly transport-related in frequency, while industrial disasters carry the highest lethality. The findings demonstrate a decoupling between disaster frequency and mortality, with overall mortality driven by rare, high-impact events. Prioritizing high-lethality mechanisms, particularly industrial explosions and structural failures, may improve disaster risk reduction strategies.