title: Deadly rural road traffic injury: a rising public health concern in I.R. Iran.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The 5(th) Iran National Development Plan, 2011-2015, has emphasized on expansion of rural asphalt roads. This article aims to illustrate the trend of deaths caused by rural road traffic crashes (RTCs) and its association with length of the rural roads in Iran.
  
  
  METHODS
  We carried out a retrospective analysis on secondary data for the period from 2005 to 2010. The Iranian Forensic Medicine Organization, High Commission for Road Safety and Iran's Statistical Center were the sources for the number of RTC death, length of the road and population data, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Number of RTC deaths in rural roads increased from 1,672 in 2005 to 2,206 in 2010. This was associated with expansion of the rural asphalt roads (P = 0.04). The construction of urban asphalt roads was also on an increasing trend, but the number of traffic deaths in these roads decreased from 26,083 in 2005 to 21,043 in 2010. Adjusted for 100,000 populations, the number of traffic deaths in urban roads showed a decrease from 37.0 to 28.0, while this number increased from 2.4 to 2.9 in rural roads during the study period.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although expansion of rural roads would contribute to economic development in rural areas, it exposes people to risk of severe RTCs if effective preventive actions are not taken. To prevent this threat, the Iranian policy makers need to take the followings into consideration: Public awareness, improving the safety of roads and vehicles, law enforcement, increasing coverage of police and Emergency Medical Services.
authors.affiliation: Department of Disaster and Emergency Health, National Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Department of Disaster Public Health, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran ; Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA.
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ardalan
authors.affiliation: Department of Disaster and Emergency Health, National Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Nariman
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sepehrvand
authors.affiliation: Department of Disaster and Emergency Health, National Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Farshad
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pourmalek
authors.affiliation: Department of Disaster and Emergency Health, National Institute of Health Research, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Gholamreza
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Masoumi
authors.affiliation: Disaster and Emergency Management Center, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohamad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sarvar
authors.affiliation: National Road Management Center, Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mahmoudabadi
authors.affiliation: Disaster and Emergency Management Center, Ministry of Health and Medical Education, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Anita
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rezaie
keywords: Death; Iran; injury; road traffic crash; rural road