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Iran’s crisis on the roads

Iran's traffic fatalities are still at a critical level.
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on leaving the office to report, film or take pictures in Tehran. 

A relative of a victim of an accident prays as he puts his hand on a coffin outside the Imam Khomeini International Airport in south of Tehran June 20, 2010. Some Iranian medical students and doctors killed in an accident after their bus plummeted into a ravine in Balamban town in Philippines. REUTERS/ISNA/Hemmat Khahi (IRAN - Tags: DISASTER POLITICS IMAGES O
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The Iranian government faces a major challenge: Traffic accidents represent a disproportionately high number of the country's fatalities. In the past, UN agencies, the World Bank and Iranian experts issued reports stating that accident rates and consequent deaths constituted a socioeconomic crisis in Iran. In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated in a report that Iran had the highest number of deaths caused by road accidents in the world. 

This week, for the first time, an official Iranian entity, the Majles Research Center (MRC), published a detailed report about Iran's traffic accident fatalities. The report outlines that in the Iranian year 1390 (which ended March 20, 2012) there were 117,256 fatal accidents, leading to 20,068 deaths and 297,257 injuries. The highest number of fatalities was recorded in 2005 when 27,759 people were killed in road and traffic accidents.

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