A report released by the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization shows the number of deaths caused by car accidents witnessed a 0.4% year-on-year rise in the 10 months ending Jan. 20.
During the period, 13,874 people lost their lives, 10,889 (78.4%) of whom were men and the remaining 2,985 (21.6%) were women.
The report categorizes deaths by province, according to which the western Ilam Province has suffered the least number of road fatalities (123) and the southern Fars Province suffered the most casualties (1,271).
The figures are a warning sign as Norouz (Iranian New Year) approaches. During the 13-day holidays, many go on trips by car and death statistics soar.
On average, 41.62 people died daily from March 15 to April 4, 2017 (the current fiscal’s Norouz holidays). Iranian Red Crescent Society (Iran's equivalent of Red Cross) and the police are busy taking precautions to avert these road tragedies as much as possible.
Red Crescent has initiated a "No to Road Accidents" campaign and about 20,000 volunteers will spend the holidays on Iranian roads to help people in different manners.
As a way to promote the cause, Red Crescent is using celebrities. Well-known comedian Mehran Modiri has been appointed as the ambassador to help raise awareness about the campaign.
The police began its Norouz scheme on Thursday to monitor the roads, confront reckless drivers and detain their vehicles. Iran’s Chief of Road Police Mohammad Hossein Hamidi said traffic offenders, who commit two violations simultaneously, will have their cars detained for 72 hours.
Hamidi said 40% of car crashes during last Norouz were due to driver fatigue.
Another reason for the staggering death toll was traced to car quality.
According to Iran Standard and Quality Inspection Company, a private firm that conducts quality and safety tests on behalf of the Ministry of Industries on 37 domestically-made vehicles, three of these vehicles hardly received one star out of five, and another 11 were given only two stars.
Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi in a recent television interview said car accidents injure 320,000 people annually, 20% of whom end up disabled.
"Soon there will be 30 million vehicles in the country. If domestic car manufacturers do not know how to produce [good quality] cars, they should stop their production line," he said.
