Arbaeen ceremony claims another victim
Sarah.Kh. FCNN News Agency _ The bitterness of the Samarra explosions and the killing and wounding of a number of Iranian travelers in Iraq was still lingering in our minds when another incident occurred and took the lives of a number of our compatriots.
This time, the accident occurred in Iran, not far from home. The bus carrying those eager to attend the Arbaeen ceremony was heading to Iraq when it overturned on the Eqlid-Yasuj axis.
The incident occurred yesterday evening near the village of Kakan.
According to FCNN, the latest statistics indicate that the number of people killed in the accident has reached 25 and the number of injured has reached 22.
This number of deaths comes while the explosions in Samarra left less than half of this number dead and injured.
Meanwhile, no official or media outlet has mentioned the cause of the bus overturning and has not held itself accountable. However, the aforementioned axis claims many victims every year due to its substandard condition.
This axis is one of the roads leading to tourist attractions in the south of the country in all four seasons.
Yasuj is considered one of the tourist hubs of southern Iran. However, we see that the roads leading to it, including the Eqlid-Yasuj axis, are suffering due to their narrow width, sharp turns, numerous potholes, and non-standard bumps.
However, no effective action has been taken so far to organize these roads, especially to eliminate accident-prone spots on these axes.
Officials repeatedly called for widening the road and building underpasses and overpasses for this area, but each was forgotten over time, often due to a lack of necessary funds.
Of course, this unfortunate situation is seen on most of our country's roads, which results in more than 23 to 27 thousand deaths in accidents annually. By adding the annual average of 250 thousand injuries in these accidents, it can be safely said that this statistic is equal to the loss of life in a full-scale war or a terrible earthquake.
Without the country's authorities doing anything to prevent it.
Statistics show that around 9 people are killed for every 10,000 cars in the world, while in Iran, 37 people are killed for every 10,000 cars.
The World Bank report also declared the road accident situation in Iran to be critical. In the rankings, only Sierra Leone in West Africa has a worse situation than Iran.
Therefore, it is expected that our country's officials will not simply ignore road accidents and their victims. Prioritizing the allocation of government funds to road axes and making them safe is part of an effort that must be strengthened with each accident in the country.
