Iran Roads Get Poor Marks From WHO

EghtesadOnline: A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) on the number of road traffic mortalities in 2016 ranks Iran as the 38th country with the world's most deadly roads.

News ID: ۷۸۴۳۹۰

11 December 2018

The report which was released early this month, says roads in Iran claimed over 15,932 lives during the year, which, according to WHO means about 20 deaths per 100,000 people. In the list, Pakistan and Russia come ahead of Iran in terms of road accident mortality respectively with 16,805 and 18,931 road deaths.

The situation is a tad better in Thailand and Ethiopia, where in 2016, 12,378 and 10,905 lives were lost in car accidents respectively.

China topped the list with 261,367 recorded deaths, Financial Tribune reported.

The data highlights that annually 1.35 million fatalities around the world are linked to road traffic accidents, making the factor the leading killer of people.

The updated figures released by domestic sources say that the number of road traffic victims in Iran has been rising.

According to Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, during the year that ended in March, more than 16,200 road deaths were recorded, which marks a slight increase compared to the WHOs report for the year before.

It is a pity that things do not seem to change this year also. Although there are more than three months before the current fiscal ends (in March 2019), the fatality number has already reached 9,000.

Detailed charts provided by LMO say that during the first half of the current fiscal to September 22, over 8,800 road deaths have been recorded.

Fars tops other provinces in the number of road fatalities with 765 deaths followed by Tehran with 623.

The other bad news is that the figure is 1.7% higher than the corresponding period of the previous year, with 8,600 deaths.

According to Traffic Police, sleep-deprivation (fatigue), speeding, overtaking from the wrong side, running a red light, talking on the cell phone, text messaging and munching behind the wheel together with low-quality vehicles and roads are the major factors leading to the deadly road mishaps.