The Risky Roads of Norooz

Norooz is the happiest of holidays for most Iranians, but not for everyone. For 38-year-old Raheleh, Iran’s favorite holiday represents something else altogether, and has for the last five years, since she lost her sister in a car accident. 

Raheleh’s sister, her sister’s husband and their two-month-old son were traveling by road from Mashhad to Shahrood when a driver on the other side of the road began overtaking illegally. “My brother-in-law was driving and tried to avoid hitting the car, but he lost control and their car went off the road. My sister had taken off her seatbelt to breastfeed her son a few minutes before,” she says.  

Raheleh’s sister died instantly, though her son and husband survived. “My life changed after that. My mother is suffering from a neurological disease. My brother-in-law remarried. My nephew doesn’t know anything about the accident or my sister. I love him, but I can’t get close to him, because this is best for everyone”.

Of course Raheleh and her family are not the only ones to have suffered such a tragedy, and Norooz is one of the most dangerous times of year to travel. In theory, Iran’s longest holiday — lasting more than 14 days — should be a great opportunity for Iranians to travel. But because of this large span of time off from work and school, Norooz has become the busiest time for travel in the country — and the most dangerous time to travel too. 

A report published by Iran’s Legal Medicine Organization, which collects information on road deaths and reports to Iranian courts on medical-related data, states that 1,084 people were killed in road accidents during last year’s Norooz holiday. In Khuzestan province, 94 people were killed on the roads; 93 people lost their lives in Fars province; and 71 people died in Khorasan Razavi province. Although the number of fatalities has fallen from the previous year (1,227 people were killed on roads during the Norooz holidays two years ago), far too many people’s lives are at risk on the roads of Iran.

Iran’s population constitutes approximately one percent of the entire world’s population — yet two percent of worldwide traffic accidents take place in Iran. 

Iran’s official reports show that the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents has actually decreased over the last 20 years. “More than 27,000 Iranians were killed in car crashes 10 years ago (2005), and recently the number of fatal crashes has been around 10,000 annually,” Taghi Mehri, Iran’s traffic police chief, told Tasnim News Agency in March 2016. According to him, 14,000 people died because of road accidents between March 2015 and January 2016. A 2012 World Health Organization (WHO) report determined that Iran has the highest number of deaths caused by road accidents in the world.

Iranian news site Radkan says that, in accordance with Iran’s five-year development plan, which comes to an end on March 20, 2016, the number of fatal accidents should have decreased 10 percent annually. Over the last 10 years, Iran’s traffic police have implemented and enforced stricter traffic safety laws, including a mandatory seat belt law for drivers and front-seat passengers, compulsory helmets for motorcyclists, and increased fines for dangerous driving. 

Iranian police and other authorities, the media and pressure groups have all raised awareness about the crisis, pushing for greater education on road safety, and for workable strategies to bring down fatalities. Authorities have demanded that car manufacturers meet safety standards, and every Norooz, the police run a campaign called "No to Accidents", supported by Iranian artists and celebrities, who raise the campaign’s profile. Over Norooz, Iran’s traffic police work overtime, trying to ensure a higher level of safety for people traveling on the congested roads. 

Experts argue that inadequate traffic engineering and poor quality roads in urban areas are two of the main reasons for the high number of fatal traffic accidents. According to Jame Jam newspaper,  there are more than 6,000 “deadly points” — areas of significant risk for drivers — on Iran’s urban roads. 

Another key issue is Iranian driving culture, which links to other attitudes to authority in Iran. The general approach seems to be to act one way when not being watched by authorities, and to follow the rules when a police officer is nearby. When it comes to driving, there is a general lack of appreciation for safety and little respect for discipline among drivers. 

Dr Ali Ansari, a lecturer in Iranian studies at the UK's Exeter University and fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, told the BBC he never drives when he goes to Iran, “I wouldn’t take the risk,” he said. “The infrastructure in general is poor but the roads themselves are not actually that bad”. Furthermore, emergency services are inadequate and unable to respond to road accidents  , even in urban areas.  

The number of poor quality vehicles on the road is also to blame. Due to international sanctions (many of which were removed under the international nuclear agreement in January 2016), most Iranians purchase and drive domestically-produced cars, which often do not meet adequate safety standards. 

The Kia Pride, the country’s cheapest, and most popular, car repeatedly fails to meet minimum safety requirements. According to  Iran’s Road Magazine, the highest number of accidents — 24.10 percent — are linked to the Pride model, 15 percent of collisions involve motorcycles, and 11.92 percent involve the Peugeot 405.  Pride has become so synonymous with accidents that Iranians often refer to it as the “Chariot of Death”. The country’s traffic police also warned that seat belts in the car could potentially lead to suffocation or even death if the car was involved in a collision because of the beat’s poor construction and adjustment. Prides do not come equipped with airbags nor anti-lock brakes as standard. Although pressures on the manufacturer have reportedly led to improvements, experts still believe the car remains unsafe to drive on city roads. The National Quality Assessment Standard organization, a body dealing with quality control in car manufacturing, advised that “Pride is not the car” for people who consider themselves to be “angry” or “nervous” drivers. Though most Iranians are aware of the warnings about Pride, they still keep buying the car because of its affordability. 

As with anywhere else in the world, Iranians use time off — especially national holidays — to spend time with their families. But for years now, Norooz travel has been treacherous. Although recent moves to combat dangerous driving have led to some improvements, Iranian drivers are still extremely vulnerable to the dangers of Iran’s poorly maintained roads, the absence of good education about road safety habits among drivers, and a car industry that has failed to meet even the most basic standards. As parliament moves into the next year, a new five-year development plan will more than likely include driver safety initiatives. Whether it will be able to deliver more promising results remains to be seen.