Iran minister explains death of 26 schoolgirls

Iranian education minister was summoned on Saturday by the lawmakers of the parliament to explain about the death of 26 schoolgirls in a traffic accident, semi- official Mehr news agency reported. Earlier in the day, the state IRIB TV and IRNA news agency reported that a school bus carrying students overturned and crashed into a valley on Lordegan-Dehdez road in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan province, killing 26 schoolgirls and injuring 18 others, who were transferred to hospitals, IRIB said. The driver lost control of the bus due to the slipperiness of the road, which led to the accident to happen, said IRNA. Following the incident, the Iranian Education Minister Hamid- Reza Haji-Babaii was asked to attend Iran's Majlis (parliament) Education and Research Commission on Sunday to explain about student tours and the death of 26 schoolgirls in the bus crash, Mohammad Mahdizahedi, the chairman of the Majlis Education and Research Commission, was quoted as saying by Mehr. On Sept. 2, IRNA reported that in a traffic accident in Iran's southern Fars province ,19 people were killed and 25 others were injured. Inexperienced drivers and low-efficiency of the cars and the roads are blamed as the causes of the road accidents in Iran.