New Dimensions of Violations by the Bus Driver Carrying Hormozgani Students Announced

The vice president of the Port of Hormozgan Passenger Transport Association stated that the driver of the bus involved in the accident with Hormozgani students "did not have the names of his passengers" and that the bus at the time of the incident had 45 occupants instead of 32. According to a report on Tuesday, September 21, by ISNA news agency, Abdolmajid Afandi made these remarks while speaking to reporters. Mr. Afandi mentioned that the Hormozgan Transport Administration had "no role" in selecting the driver and the bus involved in the accident, and that the organizers of the trip had planned and made decisions regarding this matter themselves. He expressed dissatisfaction that the organizers of the student trip had delegated the task of obtaining the bus status report to the driver himself and had not even made "a phone call" to one of the transport officials in Hormozgan province to obtain this certificate. Afandi added that the transport company "properly performed its duties and after verifying the necessary conditions for travel and checking the safety of the bus and the required documents for the drivers, issued a status report for 32 passengers." He further noted that at the time of the accident, "the number of passengers on the bus was reported to be 44." Afandi did not provide further explanation on how the number of passengers on the bus increased. In the early hours of September 10, the overturning of the bus carrying 45 occupants, including Hormozgani schoolgirls heading to participate in the National Farzanegan Camp in Shiraz, resulted in 9 fatalities and numerous injuries, including amputations and spinal injuries. A few days later, in a meeting of the Education and Research Commission of the Parliament, Mohammad Hossein Hamidi, the head of the Road Police, cited the main cause of the incident as "the driver's lack of attention due to fatigue and drowsiness." He also stated in an interview with Fars that the only person who had fastened their seatbelt in the bus was the driver, which was attributed to the monitoring of drivers through the Sephtan system. According to Hamidi, injured students from the incident reported that "when passing a police station, the driver would announce to unbuckle their seatbelts and would tell them when to buckle up again before the next police station." Mehdi Feyz, the Deputy for Cultural and Educational Affairs of the Ministry of Education, also mentioned in this meeting that "it should be acknowledged that the accompanying instructor had warned the driver several times about drowsiness." Following this incident and the order of Sadegh Larijani, the head of the judiciary, to the Attorney General of Iran to investigate this matter and road accidents in Iran, the public and revolutionary prosecutor's office of Hormozgan province summoned the Director General of Education, the Deputy Director General of Education, the student affairs officer, the head of the intercity passenger union, and the Director General of Road Maintenance of Hormozgan province regarding the bus overturning incident. In recent years, dozens of students participating in school trips have been killed in traffic accidents. For instance, in 2012, an accident involving a bus heading to the war zones of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, known as "Rahyane Nour," resulted in the deaths of 26 schoolgirls from Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province. Last year, a bus carrying students from Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province overturned while returning from Mashhad, resulting in the deaths of two students. Iran is one of the most accident-prone countries in the world in terms of driving. According to a report published by the Research Institute of the Central Insurance of Iran, among 190 countries, Iran has the highest road mortality rate after the African country of Sierra Leone.