KHORRAMABAD, Lorestan Province. -- One person was killed and another was badly injured when a car crashed onto the fence of a overpass in Khorramabad in the western Iranian Province of Lorestan to dive into a footpath on Tuesday evening.

According to the local police, the wounded person was taken to hospital. Police have started a probe to establish the cause of the accident.

Iranian roads are some of the most hazardous in the world. They have one of the highest rates of road accidents with an average of 200,000 reported annually.

On average, over 15,000 people are reported killed and 87,000 injured in traffic-related accidents in the country annually. In statistical terms, one person is killed every 40 minutes and one injured every seven minutes.

Dilapidated vehicles, insufficient emergency road assistance, lack of communication facilities to swiftly relay information on traffic-related accidents and inadequate emergency centers on roads are the main causes of the high death toll in road accidents in Iran, traffic experts say.