30% of Traffic Victims Are Pedestrians

Nearly one third of all traffic accident victims are pedestrians, said head of urban traffic division at the Law Enforcement Forces. “Based on the data from the first nine months of the current Iranian year (began in March), pedestrians make up 30% of all deaths in road mishaps,” Colonel Davood Qasemian was quoted as saying by IRNA. He said lack of attention by both drivers and pedestrians, failure to use the zebra crossing, and exceeding the speed limit were the top three reasons for the fatalities. Annually over 20,000 people are killed in road accidents in Iran, with men comprising 75% of the figure, and mostly in the age group 25-40. About 60-65% of road accidents occur on outskirts of cities rather than on highways and freeways.