Tehran Tops List of Disqualified Drivers

Over the past calendar year that ended in March residents of Tehran topped the list of confiscated driving licenses.

“Last year, 650 driving licenses were suspended by the traffic police in Tehran Province alone,” followed by Isfahan Province (574) and Zanjan Province (292), said Colonel Ahmad Karami-Asad, head of executive affairs at the Traffic Police.

The police are unanimous that the penalty point system introduced in the 2011 traffic law as a deterrent for reckless driving has been far more effective than the heavy fines for traffic offences, reports ILNA.

Under the system, each traffic violation invites a number of negative points. For instance, driving under the influence of alcohol and dangerous speeding means 10 penalty points each.

If the total points on a driver’s record equal or exceed 30, the court suspends the person’s license for three months; if a driver gets more than 25 negative points the second time, the license is suspended for six months. If the offender commits yet another transgression with 20 negative points, they are banned from driving for a year, said Karami-Asad.

“The initiative is seen to have an impact since drivers are ready to pay hefty cash penalty but not have their licenses suspended,” says Colonel Hassan Abedi, a senior traffic police officer.

Point system is effective because some of the rich, who normally own most of the expensive and fast vehicles, do not mind paying heavy fines to zoom around as they please in violation of traffic rules and endangering the lives of pedestrians and other motorists.

Increase in cash fines and confiscation of license have proved effective in reducing road accidents in many countries, while research suggests that criminalizing several types of road offences will be largely effective on the number of drivers involved in fatal collisions.

Some experts and social scientists are of the opinion that reckless drivers who endanger the lives of others must never be allowed behind the wheel and when found guilty of high number of road offences should be permanently disqualified from driving.

  Road Accidents, Casualties Still High

Iran still remains high on the list of countries with the most number of casualties in road accidents, although the figure which was 28,000 some years ago has now declined. Nearly 16,000 traffic deaths and 300,000 injuries/disabilities are recorded annually.

Official reports say 15,932 people lost their lives in traffic accidents last year, a reduction of 3.9% compared to the previous year. Accordingly, 65% of all traffic accidents occurred on suburban roads and 27.3% on urban roads. Around 7% of accidents were registered on rural roads.

Measures such as installing new surveillance cameras on urban and intercity roads have also helped curb the high rate of traffic accidents, casualties, and offences.

As of 2016, stiffer traffic penalties are being enforced. The ceiling on traffic penalties was raised from 2 million rials ($60) to 4 million ($120). The new fines had seen an increase by 20%-100% in 41 different categories of traffic violations.

Some of these categories include jumping a traffic light, illegal overtaking, crossing the speed limit, stunts such as zigzagging and driving in reverse on highways, talking on the cell phone behind the wheel, entering no-entry areas, unauthorized entry in the special traffic zones, violating the seat belt law and driving without a valid license.

Around 52% of traffic violations on urban roads, and 12% of traffic offences on suburban roads were monitored and reported by smart surveillance cameras last year. Provinces of Tehran, Qom, Isfahan, and Khorasan Razavi have the highest number of surveillance cameras, while Fars Province was declared as recording the highest rate of road crashes as well as road fatalities for the fourth consecutive year in the previous year.