Thursday 3 October 2013

70% of Tehran drivers use seat belts

Tehran seat belts 125A study Involving MonCOEH’s Adjunct Associate Professor Narges Khanjani has concluded that around 70% of drivers in Tehran are using seatbelts.

A mandatory seat belt usage law was passed in Iran on March 21, 2005, and strengthened in December 2011 with a larger fine.

There is little data available from before these laws were passed, so it is difficult to know how effective they have been. However, a study from 2009 shows that only 53.2% of drivers in the city of Kerman were wearing seatbelts at that time. This suggests that seat belt usage has improved across the country.

In saying this, there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure safe driving in Tehran.

The authors recommend that more education, knowledge improvement, law enforcement and tougher regulations should be implemented. These measures should particularly target those who performed worse in the study than other groups - young people, males, taxi drivers, those in the eastern province and those who regularly use side streets rather than main streets and freeways.

It is estimated that as many as 27, 000 Iranians die as a result of car accidents every year.

Seat belts have been proven to reduce the chance of injuries and fatalities resulting from car accidents. For example, it is estimated that in the US around 15 000 lives, and over 25 billion in casualty costs, are saved annually by people wearing seat belts.

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