“As a result of the overturning of the bus carrying the pilgrims of Karbala in the village of Sanduqabad, Qorveh city, four people were killed and 42 others were injured,” Iran’s state IRNA news agency reported
The victims were on their way back to Zanjan province in northwestern Iran after performing pilgrimage in Iraq’s holy Shiite Muslim city of Karbala.
Police commander Behrouz Khanpour said that the accident occurred “due to the violation of the safe speed and the rainy and slippery conditions of the road.”
The bus “went off track, hit the guardrail, and overturned,” he said.
Among the 42 injured passengers, one is “seriously injured” while the rest are in stable condition, said Hossein Jafari, a health official in Kurdistan province.
Iran has one of the world’s worst traffic safety records. An average of 15,000 people lose their lives on the roads every year, according to forensics data. The deadly toll is blamed on bad driving habits, lax vehicle inspections, inferior vehicles, and a general disregard for traffic laws.
The roads in Iran’s mountainous regions are particularly old and have not received proper maintenance for decades, according to a last year report by the traffic police.
Earlier this month, a traffic accident on a road infamous for being unsafe in Zanjan province killed seven people.
