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BFF-22
IRAN-TRANSPORT-ACCIDENT
10 dead in bus crash at Iran university
TEHRAN, Dec 26, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Ten people have been killed in a bus
accident at one of Tehran’s largest universities, Iran’s conservative news
agency Tasnim reported Wednesday.
The bus was carrying 30 students along a mountainous road within the
science research campus of Islamic Azad University in northwestern Tehran
when it came off the road and hit a concrete column on Tuesday.
Seven were killed instantly, state TV said, while an updated death toll of
10 was reported by Tasnim the day after the crash.
Iran was the world’s seventh deadliest country for drivers per capita,
according to the World Health Organization’s latest figures from 2013, and
the only non-African country apart from Thailand in the top 10.
Iranian authorities say over 16,000 died on the road in the last Iranian
year (2017-18).
Efforts to modernise Iran’s ageing and highly polluting cars have been
hampered by a lack of investment, and foreign companies such as Peugeot and
Renault were again forced to withdraw this year by the return of US
sanctions.
The university blamed Tuesday’s crash on the driver having a stroke, but
many on social media pointed to its ageing bus fleet and lack of road
maintenance.
Journalist Mahmoud Sadri tweeted that the university’s use of a
“ramshackle bus in a mountainous region” amounted to “manslaughter”.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei offered his condolences over the
“tragic accident” in a statement on Tuesday.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1332 hrs