Iran is amongst the countries that has the highest numbers of road accidents. On August 19th, 2015 the state-run Mehr news agency reported that between March 2010 and March 2014 more than 97,000 people lost their lives in road accidents across Iran.
Iran’s deputy police chief, Iskandar Momeni, reported that 169 people had died in road accidents during the Persian New Year holidays between March 15th and March 22nd, “meaning one person every hour.”
On Monday, Taghi Mehri, the head of traffic police in Iran, referred to the results of research that was conducted in the period of March 2013 to March 2014 and supports the conclusion that 7% of Iran’s GDP is lost in road accidents. Previously, the state-run ISNA news agency quoted Massoud Habibi, the head of the Youths Organization in
Iran’s Red Crescent as saying, “100 new handicaps are added to the country’s handicap population each day due to road accidents. Such numbers are shocking.”
Another report quotes the public relations office of the Youths Organization in Iran’s Red Crescent as saying that each year nearly 18,000 people lose their lives in road accidents, while 36,000 others become handicapped.
In recent studies the World Bank described the conditions of Iran’s roads as critical, according to a report by Mehr news agency. Based on another report from the same source, Iran is ranked 189th out of 190 countries in regard to road security. Studies that yielded these results also indicated that the number of casualties from road accidents in Iran is twice that of Turkey and 25 times that of Japan.
