Jafar Tashakkori Hashemi, chairman of the Civil Engineering and Transportation Commission of Tehran City Council said in an Instagram post that at least 552 people died in road accidents from March 20 to 29, amid a rise in trips during New Year holidays, in what he described as “no-return travels that decide a bitter fate for passengers and their families.”
Authorities have warned that the number is expected to rise toward the end of the two-week holidays when many hit the roads back to their hometowns.
The official said although “human errors” are blamed for 80 percent of the accidents, modern technology has come to the aid of car manufacturers to enable the vehicles to prevent fatalities in the case of such errors.
“Unfortunately, due to a lack of competition in car manufacturing and the production of low-quality vehicles in addition to unsafe roads in our country, over 17,000 people lose their lives, with the number being 20 to 30 time bigger in cases of disabilities and injuries, which mainly includes active people aging between 15 to 45.”
The figures, he said, places Iran on the list of high-risk states in terms of road traffic accidents.
