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VOA – Nine people were killed Thursday in a car crash in northeastern Iran, the worst single accident since the start of the Persian new year holiday, state media reported.
Police said 585 people have died on the roads since the start of the March 19-April 1 holiday season, during which many Iranians travel to visit family.
Thursday’s incident occurred in Semnan province, east of Tehran. Two vehicles crashed and caught fire, the IRNA state news agency reported, quoting emergency services.
IRNA said the death toll for the holiday season last year was 1,217.
The high number of deaths has been blamed on the poor condition of parts of the road network, careless driving and the low quality of the vehicles.
A police official in 2022 accused local car makers of delivering “unsafe” vehicles to the public while charging them the same price as foreign companies.
Several overseas car firms left Iran in 2018 after the U.S. reimposed sanctions over the country’s nuclear program.
