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.

Considering that, globally, road traffic accidents kill 1.2 million people, and the fact that Iran has 1% of the world population, the rate of traffic fatalities is disproportionately high in the country. Sadly, according to UNICEF, in Iran, among all unintentional fatal injuries inflicted on children under five, traffic-related fatalities are the leading cause of death.

From an economic point of view, according to the MRC report, road accidents and consequent fatalities lead to damages equaling 8% of the Iranian gross domestic product (GDP). UN reports put the figure at about 6% of the country’s GDP. In other words, damages resulting from traffic accidents amounted to a minimum of $20 billion in the Iranian year 1390.