ASIRT was founded in 1995 in response to the death of Aron Sobel, a 25-year old medical school student who was killed in a bus crash

 in Turkey along with 22 other passengers from many countries.

The bus driver was speeding down the wrong lane of a narrow, ill-maintained road with a sharp curve and no guard rail. The road had long been on a government list of “black spots” in need of repair. Aron’s graduation from the University of Maryland Medical School would have taken place two weeks from the day he was killed.