Highway death toll soars in Iran

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Jun. 15 – For years Iran has had one of the highest death tolls from road accidents, but on Wednesday officials announced a staggering increase in the expected number of fatalities in the current year. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Jun. 15 – For years Iran has had one of the highest death tolls from road accidents, but on Wednesday officials announced a staggering increase in the expected number of fatalities in the current year.

Head of Iran’s traffic police Brigadier General Mohammad Rouyanian told the state-run news agency ISNA that the expected death toll from accidents on Iran’s highways for the current year stood at 31,000.

The figure, he said, represented a 10 percent rise from last year’s record of about 28,000.

“This year, road accidents are resulting in the deaths of three to four people every hour of the day. This is like having a plane crash once every three days”, Rouyanian said, adding that the number of people injured on the roads would reach the 300,000 mark in the current year.

Iran’s highways are considered to be among the most dangerous in the world, with some 100,000 road-accident deaths occurring in the last five years, the equivalent of three deaths an hour.