One vehicle for every three people in Iran

TEHRAN, April 23 (MNA) -- There is one vehicle for every three people in Iran, Traffic Police Chief Eskandar Mo’meni announced on Sunday. He made the remarks at a conference on car traffic in Tehran. He went on to say that 8.2 of every 10,000 residents of Iran fall victim to car accidents every year. Iran accounts for 1.1 percent of the world population and has 1.8 percent of the world’s motor vehicles, but 1.5 percent of the deaths resulting from car accidents occur in Iran, he noted. During the last Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 19, 2012, 1.7 million new cars were officially registered, Mo’meni said. During this period, 900,000 motorcycles were also officially registered, he stated. In addition, 1.9 million driver’s licenses were issued in the previous Iranian calendar year, and the average age of the license holders was 27, he added. Iran may have 30 million cars by the late 2010s About 4 million cars were plying the highways and byways of the country in the beginning of the first decade of the 21st century, but this figure skyrocketed to 15 million by the end of the decade, the traffic police chief said. He also predicted that the number of cars would hit 30 million by the late 2010s. And over the past three years, license plate registration has risen by 36 percent, he added. 14% decrease in traffic fatalities Mo’meni also said the number of people killed in road accidents declined from 23,000 to 20,000 during the previous Iranian calendar year, which was a 14 percent decrease from the year before. During the year, the number of people injured in road accidents also decreased by 17,000, the traffic police chief stated.