Road accidents are one of the main causes of death and injury in our country and unfortunately, among the countries in the world, Iran ranks among the countries with high statistics of fatalities and injuries caused by these accidents.

A look at the statistics of the World Health Organization shows that in the year 2010, 25,224 people in Iran died as a result of traffic accidents. The demographic distribution of the fatalities in 2010 shows that 47.5% were passengers of four-wheeled vehicles or more, 22.9% were riders of motorcycles or vehicles with two or three wheels, 28.6% were pedestrians, and approximately 1% belonged to other groups.

This statistic can become more attention-grabbing when converted to the index of number of deaths per one hundred thousand vehicles and the number of deaths per one hundred thousand population of the country.

Looking at these statistics in 2014, it can be seen that for every 100,000 people in the country, 24.1 people are killed and for every 100,000 vehicles, 104.7 people are killed. In Ireland during the same time, the statistics were 4.2 deaths per 100,000 people and 8.1 deaths per 100,000 vehicles.

Although these statistics are reported differently in various sources, for example in another report, Iran ranks third in the world with 38 deaths per 100,000 population, after Namibia and Thailand. Even in another report, Iran ranks first in the world with 43.54 deaths from traffic accidents per 100,000 population.

A noteworthy and thought-provoking point is that regardless of the accuracy of these statistics, unfortunately the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents in Iran is significantly higher than many other countries in the world and requires urgent attention from everyone. These statistics can demonstrate the extent to which, by observing certain measures, the number of deaths of citizens due to traffic accidents can be reduced, and in fact, the right to life is one of the fundamental rights of all humans. Therefore, as a fundamental and primary right, it is necessary to address this issue and government officials are obligated to intervene in order to protect the human rights of citizens.

A look at relevant factors in assessing human rights in health indicators.

According to Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health is a fundamental right of all individuals. Therefore, governments are obligated to take necessary measures in laws, structures, etc. to ensure this right. For physical and mental well-being, factors that endanger the health of individuals must be carefully considered and appropriate mechanisms must be established to protect the overall health of everyone.

Road accidents are also considered in this group of services in evaluations of human rights in health, and methods of controlling these accidents are evaluated for the assessment of human rights in health.

It is very interesting to know that even in some methods of evaluating human rights in health, alongside assessing major issues such as whether there are any mandatory tools regarding the obligation of the government to accept the right to health of the entire society in the constitution or other higher laws, cases such as the percentage of revoked driving licenses for violating driving laws and regulations are also examined. Ultimately, statistics on the number of fatalities and injuries caused by traffic accidents are evaluated per 100,000 population and per 100,000 vehicles.

Strategies for reducing losses and injuries caused by traffic accidents.

Perhaps these solutions can be divided into three categories: A) Human solutions such as promoting safe driving culture and teaching traffic laws in schools, increasing police focus on enforcing traffic laws (instead of interfering in personal matters), and educating the public through mass media. B) Vehicle safety measures such as requiring domestic car manufacturers to comply with safety standards, regulating and removing unsafe vehicles from circulation, facilitating the import of standard vehicles, and creating a competitive environment for car production. C) Road improvements through completing the country’s road network, ensuring road safety and implementing international standards, identifying accident-prone areas and making necessary changes, etc.

What have the statesmen done so far?

At first, we review some actions and words of the country’s officials.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took action in the field of canceling the plan to intensify traffic violations and in the 170-day report of the first government of the first term of his presidency, he was titled as canceling the plan to intensify traffic violations in line with the president’s real trust in the people. In this report, it was not specified what happens to the rights of individuals who are killed or injured due to the misconduct of others. (No one denies the lack of pressure on the general public, but dangerous actions that can endanger the lives of others must be managed and controlled, and lack of control means creating satisfaction among offenders at the cost of paying for the health of a group of people who unintentionally suffer injuries or die in traffic accidents). Perhaps this first action of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s first government, despite creating a populist framework, challenged human rights. Although this has happened before and after that as well.

Engineer Nematzadeh, the Minister of Industries of President Hassan Rouhani’s government, stated in reference to launching a campaign for “not buying domestic cars”: “Anyone who does such a thing is definitely against the revolution and opposed to the country’s interests.”

Mr. Mohammad Reza Modoudi, advisor to the Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade and deputy of the Iran Trade Development Organization, also demonstrated a new literary approach to the people’s fundamental right not to buy low-quality cars and used metaphors such as the snail’s inner spiral and the hidden hand in the sleeve to describe this spontaneous and popular movement.

“Nader Ghazipour, a member of the Industries and Mines Commission of the Parliament, announced in an interview with the House of Representatives News Agency the collection of signatures for the drafting of a dual-rate plan to increase car imports by a thousand percent and ban its imports.”

However, alongside these words and actions of some officials, who have intentionally or unintentionally violated human rights in the field of health, it is possible to make a more accurate assessment of governments’ performance in the three main areas of necessary actions to reduce traffic fatalities, in terms of the commitment of statesmen to respect this right, as part of the basic human rights, by evaluating the performance of governments.

a.

Vehicle manufacturing.

Has any action been taken to ensure the safety of domestically produced vehicles and to monitor the continuous improvement of the safety system of these vehicles?

It seems that not only have the safety standards of cars not been properly explained, but there is also not enough supervision for the production of safe cars. Unfortunately, due to the domestic car manufacturers’ confidence in the lack of competitive space, less effort is made by them to improve the safety of their products.

Culturalization

Have planned actions and coordination between relevant agencies been taken in the field of public culture? Have written materials on the importance of respecting and following laws been included in textbooks and has there been a focus on teaching children and adolescents about respecting traffic laws? Have mass media been able to gain the trust of the people and take steps towards attracting audiences? And if so, have enough efforts been made in the field of promoting a culture of obeying traffic laws? Are community leaders and police setting an example in following laws? Perhaps many of you witness daily examples of this in the city and on the roads, and it can be boldly stated that instead of governing by regulations and traffic laws, inappropriate behaviors of drivers have become the ruler of traffic relations. While in many developed countries, every citizen knows that they are responsible for following laws and even preventing others from violating traffic laws, and it seems that this is a result of public culture. This lack of public culture sometimes leads to surprising incidents, such as a person contacting

Road repairs.

Is the growth and development of the country’s road network appropriate? Have quantitative and qualitative standards for road construction been based on global standards? If yes, is there proper supervision in place to ensure compliance with road and construction standards? Is there a written plan for making existing roads safe and identifying and correcting accident-prone areas?

Answering all of these questions and many other questions about the basic rights of all people is important. It would be better for the relevant authorities to inform the public about their actions and the progress made in this regard, instead of insulting the civil activities of the people in defense of their rights.

In any case, we cannot ignore the painful reality that the number of casualties on our country’s roads is very high. Taking into account the injured and disabled resulting from traffic accidents and the unfortunate consequences that these events have on the lives of many members of society, it is felt that urgent intervention and planned action by government officials is necessary. The importance of this duty for government officials becomes more prominent when all members of society know that, according to human rights frameworks, the right to health is one of the fundamental rights of humans and governments are obligated to plan appropriately in this regard. Government officials should know that not only is any civil action in defense of fundamental human rights their undeniable right, but it is also the duty of government officials to plan for the protection of these rights.

In the hope that statesmen are aware of their duty towards the people and act accordingly…