TEHRAN — Traffic police is planning to enforce more stringent rules on careless intercity bus drivers as accidents and fatalities have reached alarming levels.

By installing monitoring devices on the roads the buses will be controlled online from a one-kilometer distance so that the police can have access to all their information via GPS including their speed which help them in better regulating the bus drivers’ driving behavior, Mehr news agency quoted the traffic police chief Taqi Mehri as saying on Tuesday.

The scheme, called “Sepah-Tan”, is implemented on a test trial on the linking roads to Tehran, Mashhad, Qom and Isfahan, Mehri said adding, it will be implemented on all buses travelling on the roads by the end of the current year (March 21, 2017) and hopefully result in a decrease in the number of accidents.

Currently there are 300 speed control cameras on the roads which will grow to almost double by the end of the summer (September 21), he added.

Over the past five month falling on March 20 to August 21, 2016 some 47 bus accidents took place, Mehri pointed stating, the number suggests a 55 percent decrease in the number of the accidents and 22 percent decrease in the number of fatalities compared to the same period last year.

16,500 traffic related death reported last year

Mehri lamented that last year (March 21, 2015 to March 19, 2016) some 16,500 died in motor vehicle accidents; “in other words some 45 individuals died a day in accidents”.

By going through the records of the past years traffic accidents believed to claim 280,000 lives over the past 10 years, so the issue is of national importance, he highlighted.

He went on to say that since the month of Shahrivar is the last month of summer and the roads are the busiest over this month the number of the accidents will increase drastically, so the police must be harder on the drivers by imposing stricter rules.

Over the past month of Shahrivar (August 23 to September 22, 2015) more than 1,700 individual died in the accidents which is a big number, he regretted.

Speeding is leading cause of accidents

Mehri warned that speeding is the main cause of accidents which leads to death.

It is best for the drivers to consider the time they spend on the road to get to their final destination as part of their trip and try to drive safe, he added.

Police will definitely respond to those who violate traffic rules, he pointed, warning, “We will impound cars whose drivers commit two traffic violations which can cause car accidents for 72 hours.”

Road fatalities drop by 4.8%

On the bright side road fatalities dropped by 4.8 percent over the first for month of the current year falling on March 20 to July 21, 2016 compared to the same period last year, Mehri said.

MQ/MG