12 Killed, 16 Injured As Bus Carrying Gas Refinery Workers Overturns In Easetrn Kurdistan's Ilam Province
The bus was taking employees of the Dehloran NGL plant home; the president has ordered an investigation into the cause, which remains unknown, according to a local official
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The death toll from the overturning of a bus carrying employees of a gas refinery in Iran’s western Ilam province rose to 12 by Sunday morning, with 16 others injured in hospitals and health centers, the governor of Abdanan County said. Behzad Nourmohammadi told Iran’s state news agency IRNA that the bus, carrying the driver and 27 passengers, overturned on Saturday night while taking employees of the Dehloran natural gas liquids (NGL) plant back to their homes.
Nourmohammadi said three of the injured died after reaching hospital because of the severity of their injuries.
Ten of the injured are being treated at the main hospital in Dezful, five at health centers in Abdanan and one at the central hospital in Ilam.
Iranian media reported that the accident happened at about 7:25 p.m. on the road between Dasht Abbas and Murmuri, near the border with Iraq.
President Masoud Pezeshkian instructed the interior minister to investigate the causes because of the number of victims, and Abdanan’s prosecutor has opened an investigation into how and why the bus overturned. The cause has not been announced.
The Dehloran NGL 3100 plant is considered one of the key energy projects in southern Ilam province. Authorities declared one day of mourning in the province and two days in Abdanan County, according to Pajhwok, and the passengers were residents of the Abdanan area.
IRNA gave the names of the dead as Amin Mohammadvali, Mohammadreza Mohammadi, Saeed Gholami, Lotfollah Moradi, Ruhollah Alijani, Fariborz Hadizadeh, Sajjad Nasrollahi, Bahram Tahmasebi, Mohammad Rahimi, Mousa Rahimi, Ahmad Taghizadeh and Ayoub Hasanvand, according to the text provided.
Iranian authorities have warned that the toll could rise because some of the injured were in critical condition, according to AFP. Iran has a poor road-safety record, with nearly 20,000 deaths in traffic accidents in the 12 months to March, according to the Legal Medicine Organization.