At least 217 people have lost their lives in road accidents in the past six days alone. Iran is only second to Sierra Leone in having the deadliest roads in the world.
Nearly 17,000 people in Iran are killed and 300,000 injured every year on Iran’s roads due to a combination of unsafe roads, non-standard cars, careless driving or illegal driving, according to the Traffic Police Chief.
Iran’s deputy police chief says: “The country’s roads take the life of one person every 58 minutes.”
While the World Health Organization notes that traffic-related fatalities are the leading cause of death in Iran, with road accidents happening at nearly twenty times the world average.
Car crashes may be hard to predict but it is easy to prevent them and the Iranian Regime should be doing more to stop the high levels of road traffic accidents, like implementing speed limits, introducing a seatbelt law for car users and a helmet law for bike users, establishing traffic signs, and improving road design.
They could also establish more funding for the emergency services so that the fire and ambulance services were able to respond more quickly to accidents.
With over 80 percent of Iranians living below the poverty line, according to Shahab Naderi, MP, this type of investment by the government would huge benefit their daily lives; not only by making them safer but also by creating jobs.
