Nowruz road accidents have so far claimed 469 lives in Iran

Road accidents across Iran during the Nowruz, or Persian New Year, holidays that started last Wednesday have so far left 469 people killed and over 12,500 injured, the deputy head of the country’s traffic police said on Monday.

General Mohammad Bagher Salimi told Iran’s IRINN news network that over 283 million trips have been registered as the country is halfway through the 13-day holidays.

General Salimi noted that about 44 percent of the accidents were caused by inadequate attention to driving requirements on roads due to using cell phones while driving.

He further added that in 30 percent of the incidents the vehicles flipped over due to drowsy driving and exhaustion.

He also called on the holidaymakers to avoid traveling to western and southern areas of the country where flashfloods are expected due to heavy rainfalls, and asked them to call off their trips until the weather conditions are stable.

Iran has one of the worst records of traffic accidents in the world, which gets even worse during holidays. The grim record is mainly attributed to reckless driving and poor infrastructure.

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