Police: 838 die in road accidents in Iran during Nowruz holidays

That’s according to Commander of Iran’s Traffic Police Brigadier General Seyed Teimour Hosseini.

He added that 19,166 people have been wounded during the period.

Hosseini said Nowruz travelers have started returning to their cities in huge numbers and noted that the volume of road traffic has increased significantly since Thursday.

Referring to the strict monitoring of traffic violations by the police, he said as of April 2, any driver who commits a traffic violation will have his license confiscated for three months.

The policec commander added that throughout the implementation of this plan, 3,166 violators have been identified so far, and their licenses have been confiscated and they have been fined as well.

In other remarks, Hosseini underlined that many travelers have postponed their return to the last days of the holidays, saying despite repeated police warnings about travel time management, traffic on the roads has significantly increased.

Millions of Iranians travel to tourist destinations in the country during Nowruz each year.

The high number of deaths this year came despite that Iranian traffic police and other officials urged citizens to join the “No to Accidents” campaign and avoid dangerous driving behaviors.