Dozens of people have died after their bus crashed into a high-voltage electricity pylon and overturned on Chalus Road in the north of the country, news outlets reported Saturday. “Sixteen passengers were killed and 12 injured during the incident that took place in pre-dawn darkness on the mountain road linking the cities of Karaj in Alborz Province to Chalus in Mazandaran,” said Seyyed Mostafa Mortazavi, spokesperson for the Relief and Rescue Operations at the Iranian Red Crescent Society, ISNA reported. The collision caused blackouts in the rural area, some 100 kms north of Tehran.”All those injured have been transferred to the nearest medical centers and are being taken care of,” Mortazavi noted. Iran has one of the world’s highest traffic accident casualty rates, with some 28,000 deaths per year.