Every Hour Two Die in Road Mishaps

Traffic accidents in Iran kill two and injure five people every hour, says head of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS).

Pir-Hossein Kolivand said many of the injuries caused in road mishaps lead to permanent disability and inflict pain and misery on families and huge economic loss on the government. He appealed to authorities to identify and address the main causes of the excessively high rate of car accidents, local automotive website Asre Khodro reported.

“Road crashes are avoidable … raising social awareness and improving vehicle safety must be put high on the agenda,” he said.

Kolivand noted that from the total 2.85 million EMS dispatches during the last fiscal that ended in March, close to 650,000 were related to traffic accidents.

Car crashes on Iranian roads cause thousands of deaths and injuries every year. The main cause of death of people between 15-49 years (mostly males) is said to be car accidents.

According to statistics released by Association for Safe International Road Travel, an average of 3,287 people die in road crashes every day in the world. This is while Iran has the record of an average 48 deaths meaning 1.5% of the global rate. According to UNICEF, this is twenty times more than the world’s average. Iran accounts for 1% of the world population.

UNICEF, together with Iran’s Ministry of Health, State Welfare Organization, police forces, and Tehran Municipality, has begun an awareness-raising campaign to draw attention to the excessively high rate of car accidents and to contribute to reducing the mortality and injury rates caused on roads.

Relevant authorities have drawn up some plans to curb such disasters. Earlier this year, the Traffic Police announced new rules for issuing driving licenses that include tighter restrictions on novice drivers.

Observers say while such rules can and must help reduce the large number of road deaths, more stringent automotive standards must be introduced obliging all domestic companies not to compromise safety for profit.