TEHRAN — Approximately one-fourth of the traffic-related deaths happened among motorcycle riders so far this [Iranian calendar] year (starting on March 21), traffic police chief Taqi Mehri said on Monday.

There are 11.7 million motorcycle riders in the country and they caused 30 percent of the road accidents over the current [Iranian calendar] year (March 2018- March 2019), YJC quoted Mehri as saying. 

“Over the past few years the number of motorcycle riders have increased which has led to more deaths result from crashes and that’s why we are planning to teach them road skills to avoid accidents,” he added.

According to the statistics published by Iran’s forensics organization some 16,201 individuals lost their lives in road accidents in the past calendar year (March 2016- March 2017) which shows a 1.7 percent increase compared to a year earlier.

Moreover the figures reveal that some 7,062 individuals were killed in accidents over the first 5 months of the current year (March 21- August 22) which again indicates a 1.7 percent surge compared to the same period a year before. 

According to the World Health Organization almost half of all deaths on the world’s roads are among those with the least protection – motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians.

However, the likelihood of dying on the road as a motorcyclist, cyclist or pedestrian varies by region: the African Region has the highest proportion of pedestrian and cyclist deaths at 43% of all road traffic deaths, while these rates are relatively low in the South-East Asia Region.

MQ/MG