Arbaeen Ceremony Claims More Victims

Sara.Kh. FCN News Agency _ The bitter taste of the Samarra explosion incident and the deaths and injuries of a number of Iranian travelers in Iraq was still lingering when another tragedy occurred and claimed the lives of some of our compatriots.

This time, however, the incident happened in Iran and at no great distance from home. A bus carrying enthusiasts eager to participate in the Arbaeen ceremony heading to Iraq overturned on the Aqlid-Yasuj axis.

This incident occurred yesterday evening near the village of Kakan.

According to FCN News Agency, the latest figures indicate that the number of deaths from this accident has reached 25 and the injured to 22 people.

This death toll is while the explosions that occurred in Samarra caused fewer than half this number of deaths and injuries.

In the meantime, no official or media outlet has referred to the cause of this bus overturn and has not considered themselves responsible. Despite the fact that the mentioned axis claims many lives every year due to being non-standard.

This axis is one of the roads leading to tourist attractions in the south of the country throughout the four seasons of the year.

Yasuj is considered one of the tourism hubs of southern Iran. In this situation, we have witnessed that the roads leading to it, including the Aqlid-Yasuj axis, claim victims due to narrow width, sharp curves, numerous potholes, and non-standard shoulders.

However, so far, no effective measures have been taken to organize these roads and especially to eliminate accident-prone points on these axes.

Officials have repeatedly promised road widening and the construction of underpasses and overpasses for this region, but each one has been forgotten over time and mostly due to lack of necessary funding.

Of course, this unfortunate situation is seen on most roads in our country. Which causes the annual deaths of more than 23 to 27 thousand people in accidents. With the addition of an annual average of 250 thousand injuries in these incidents, it can safely be said that this figure matches the casualties of a full-scale war or a devastating earthquake.

Without national authorities taking any preventive action.

Statistics show that in the world, approximately 9 people are killed per 10,000 vehicles, while in Iran, 37 people are killed for this number of vehicles.

In the World Bank report as well, the condition of road accidents in Iran is declared critical. To the extent that in rankings, only Sierra Leone in West Africa has a worse situation compared to Iran.

Therefore, it is expected that the authorities of our country will not simply overlook road accidents and their victims. Prioritizing the allocation of government funding to road axes and securing them is part of an effort that should be strengthened with each incident in the country.