TEHRAN – The number of public transport fleet accidents has increased significantly over the last two months, and 81% of bus drivers were to blame for fatal road crashes, Traffic Police chief has announced.

Over 90 percent of the whole transfers across the country are done by ground transport system, while air, rail and sea transportation hold a small share, Mehr quoted Seyed Kamal Hadianfar as saying on Tuesday.

Last year, 19 million rides have been delivered transferring over 290 million passengers, mostly through the bus transportation fleet under the Municipalities supervision, he stated.

He went on to say that bus drivers spend more time driving exceeding standard hour due to low income, which increases the risk of road crashes. 

Referring to the importance of technical inspection for the bus fleet, he noted that all the buses operation in the country’s transportation system must undergo inspection and ensure the passengers’ safety, as well as limiting the drivers to spend more time offering service.

During the past two months, bus drivers were responsible for some 81 percent of the whole traffic-related accidents happened in the public transport fleet, which mostly occurred due to reckless driving, driving an unsafe speed and running through the wrong lane, he explained.

He concluded that management must be based on new technologies to accomplish the good results, using startups can lead to sustainable management in this field.
Hadianfar in June said that road crash casualties amounted to 3,863 in the country during the first three months of the current year.

Some 45-55 people get killed in crashes each day in the country, he added.

Teymour Hosseini, Tehran traffic police chief, said in August that traffic-related accidents brought heavy economic burden amounting to 20 trillion rials (about $480 million) for the country in the past Iranian calendar year (ended March 20).

Nearly 1.25 million people die in road crashes each year, on average 3,287 deaths a day. An additional 20-50 million are injured or disabled. More than half of all road traffic deaths occur among people aged 15-44.

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