"Unsafe vehicles" dominate Iranian roads; "nearly two people" die in accidents every hour
The head of the National Highway Traffic Police (NAJA) said, "Nearly two people are killed every hour in road accidents in Iran," while traffic officials say that in many of these fatal accidents, the safety systems of vehicles are incomplete or not efficient enough.
Brigadier General Seyyed Kamal Hadianfar announced during the Traffic Police Operational Mobility and Capability Exercise: "32 percent of traffic accident fatalities are related to vehicle occupants who are not wearing seat belts, 25 percent are drivers who cause their own and others' deaths, motorcyclists with 24 percent, and pedestrians with 19 percent are among the other accident fatalities."
Fatal road accidents in Iran sometimes occur repeatedly on a specific axis, and residents or drivers sometimes choose the name "Death Road" for such routes, without any investigation by the relevant institutions to prevent similar incidents from recurring.
Khuzestan is among the provinces with "death roads" and high accident rates. The CEO of the Khuzestan Red Crescent Society said, "Khuzestan has the second highest death rate in the country from road accidents, and in the first ten months of the year, we have had 510 deaths in road accidents in the province, which is a 17 percent increase compared to last year."
Two days ago, on January 10, 2021, at 7:40 AM, a fatal accident occurred at kilometer 10 of the Behbahan-Ahvaz highway. Colonel Reza Dowlatshahi, head of the Khuzestan traffic police, explained: “49 cars collided and three cars caught fire, and a family of three in one of the cars and a passenger in another car died at the scene.”
The head of the NAJA traffic police also said in relation to the recent Behbahan incident: "In the Behbahan incident, which was very heartbreaking, no car's airbags were deployed. Why are we producing chariots of death? Why aren't standards being monitored? Why isn't the Ministry of Health monitoring? The automakers in this incident must definitely be brought to justice. It is true to say that the drivers were not careful in the Behbahan incident, but what role did the relevant organizations play?"
Despite the fact that the announced number of road deaths in Iran, which is 17,000 people annually announced by the Forensic Medicine Organization, is very high, Colonel Seyed Hadi Hashemi, former head of the National Police Traffic Police, said recently, "In traffic statistics, by dividing traffic fatalities into type one and two traffic accidents and new categories, they have tried not to count many deaths as traffic fatalities in order to lower the number, but this did not happen either."
