Deadly Roads: 510 Killed in the First Week of Nowruz Travels

Islamic Republic law enforcement officials have reported the deaths of "510 people" during the first week of Nowruz travels despite a decrease in road traffic. According to the Tasnim news agency, which is close to Iran's security institutions, Timour Hosseini, the head of the Islamic Republic's traffic police, announced that as of today (8 AM on the 7th of Farvardin), 510 Iranians have lost their lives due to road accidents. He claimed that during this period, there were more than "310 million trips" across the country, which represents a "5 percent" decrease compared to last year. This statistic comes despite Haadi Hashemi, the former head of Iran's traffic police, stating in December 2021 to the news website Jamaat24 that even with manipulation of statistics, "the casualties are still high. In traffic statistics, by dividing traffic fatalities into types one and two and new clauses, they tried to exclude many deaths from the traffic fatality count to lower the statistics, but this did not happen either." Due to the negligence of government officials in providing suitable roads, lack of oversight on domestic production, and the shortcomings of law enforcement agencies in enforcing traffic laws or driver errors, at least 17,000 people are killed annually on the roads. According to Timour Hosseini, over "87,000 individuals" from various agencies participated in the "Nowruz Plan" of 1403, and the provinces of Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, Isfahan, Fars, and Khuzestan had the "highest frequency of accidents" during this time. Furthermore, due to manipulations in laws and statistical criteria by government institutions, deaths occurring 30 days after an accident, vehicles falling into water, or vehicles exiting the 2.5-meter road boundary are not included in the official traffic fatality statistics, reflecting the extent of the humanitarian disaster in this area. Raisi claimed a reduction in traffic accidents; the police: the accident statistics are "horrific"; the Minister of Interior of the Islamic Republic stated: fines are not deterrent; they will increase. The implementation of the "Nowruz Plan" on Iran's roads; 110 people were killed in accidents in the first three days.