TEHRAN -- Road accidents leave more than 20,000 Iranians killed and incur two billion dollars in property damage each year, a parliamentarian, who is also a member of the Construction Commission of the Majlis, said here Tuesday.

Habibollah Esmaeilzadeh criticized what he called officials' indifference to Iranian roads which handle 90 percent of the country's transportation.

According to official statistics, one person is killed every 40 minutes and one injured every seven minutes in Iran. Transport experts blame most of the accidents on dilapidated vehicles and reckless driving.

More than 1.5 million old cars, running for over 20 years, are plying on Iranian roads.