The number of road and driving accidents in Iran has dropped in recent years, however, a tragic number of people continue to lose their lives in driving accidents.

Dr. Ali Gorji, director of Shafa Neural Sciences Research Center, told the Sixth International Gathering on Road Safety, that based on the surveys, an estimated 1000 Iranians are expected to lose their lives in driving accidents during the New Year holidays in March 2017. 

Gorji was cited by the state-run ISNA news agency on February 15, 2017, as saying, “One should notice that every year, some two to three thousand children lose their lives in driving accidents. The number of deaths can be reduced by 70 to 80 per cent if children’s car seats are used in the cars. At the same time, we see a 60-per-cent reduction in the children’s injuries in accidents.”

On the sidelines of this gathering, the State Security Force’s Road Police Chief, Taqi Mehri, told reporters: “To increase car safety, various laws and measures are being contemplated which include making use of children’s car seats obligatory.” 

Taqi Mehri said some 8 per cent of driving accident victims between March and December 2016 were children under 10.

11.6 per cent of the victims were between 11 and 20 years of age, Mehri said. In other words, one-fifth of the victims of driving and road accidents in Iran are youngsters under 20 years of age.

Based on the statistics of the Coroner’s Office, 12,571 people were killed in driving accidents in Iran from March to December 2016. Nearly 264,000 people were injured. The number of deaths has dropped compared to the same period last year and the number of those injured had over 8 per cent increase.

5200 dangerous locations in Iran

Citing the reports of the World Bank, the state-run Mehr news agency reported in July 2015 that the condition of road accidents in Iran is critical. 

The Research Center of Iran’s Central Insurance wrote, “The world’s record is some 9 people killed for every 10,000 cars, while in Iran 37 persons are killed for 10,000 cars.” 

In light of the number of cars and the casualties in road accidents, the number of victims in Iran are 25 times as much as Japan and double the number of similar incidents in the neighboring Turkey, Mehr reported.

Substandard road conditions and technical problems in the cars are among the most important causes of driving accidents in Iran.

On February 15, the state-run ISNA news agency quoted the SSF Road Police Chief as saying, “Presently, there are 3200 locations outside the urban areas, and 2000 locations within the cities that cause accidents.”