Citation

Heidari M, Heidari S. Disaster Med. Public Health Prep. 2021; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Publisher Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/dmp.2021.15

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

According to the latest World Health Organization (WHO) report, the road traffic injury (RTI) death rate in Iran was around 16000 cases in 2018, 1 meaning that 1 person died about every 19 minutes from RTIs. 2 In order to respond to RTIs in Iran, the police, emergency medical services (EMS), fire department, and Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) play important roles in controlling and managing road traffic crash scenes, and helping the injured. 3,4 The police provide scene security, the EMS treat and transfer the injured to the hospital, the IRCS conducts search and rescue operations, and the fire department extinguishes fires, as required. RTIs may involve death at the crash scene, and the transfer of the remains of casualties have constituted a persistent problem. This has been a source of distress for survivors and relatives, and the cause of myriad legal problems. The insufficiency of legal frameworks for transferring corpses from road traffic crash scenes has also caused conflict between Iranian relief agencies.

By law, municipalities are responsible for transporting remains from urban traffic crashes to forensic pathology departments. These municipal activities are however restricted in scope to a 18.65-mile radius around city limits. The remains of RTI victims outside urban areas (as defined by municipal scope) are a regular source of conflict, as no Iranian relief agencies consider this issue their legal responsibility.

The lack of clear accountability among relief organizations for the transfer of remains of crash victims has often led to the abandonment of corpses for extended periods at road traffic crash scenes. For example, in an RTI outside Ahwaz city, the remains of a 50-year-old man had been abandoned on the Mahshahr Highway for several hours, and no organization was willing to transfer them to the Ahwaz forensic pathology department...

Language: en