ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Kurdistan Region’s interior ministry announced Thursday a nationwide campaign to install speed surveillance cameras, thanks to their significant impact in reducing traffic accidents on streets where they have already been implemented.

“The speed surveillance cameras have had crucial achievements, including leading to a decrease in traffic accidents and fatalities,” read a statement by the Ministry of the Interior.

The ministry added that the nationwide process will include “the entire Kurdistan Region’s cities and towns.”

It detailed that drivers who “violate traffic rules and regulations will face legal penalties.”

Forcing drivers to limit speed, point-to-point speed cameras track the average speed of a vehicle between two locations spaced two to three kilometers apart. If a car reaches the second point faster than allowed, a fine is issued, with the minimum being 60,000 dinars and the maximum 120,000 dinars.

Car accidents are one of the major causes of death in Iraq due to the poor state of roads with at least 870 people were killed in nearly 5,000 car accidents across Iraq in 2024, a significant decrease from the previous years, according to Iraq’s interior ministry.

Excessive speeding, the failure to abide by traffic signs, and a lack of seat belt wearing are the key causes of fatal car accidents in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. Wearing seat belts reduces death rates by 45 percent, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Around 1.1 million people die each year as a result of road traffic accidents globally, with over 90 percent of the accidents occurring in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Traffic police in Erbil said last week that point-to-point speed surveillance cameras that have been implemented in the Kurdish capital city have significantly contributed to reducing car accidents, with authorities in Sulaimani noting that roads possessing this system have seen a near 100 percent reduction in fatal incidents.

“Installing the point-to-point speed cameras has directly contributed to reducing traffic accidents compared with the time we did not have them, based on the data available,” Hemin Ameen, spokesperson of the Erbil Traffic Department, told The New Region, adding roads controlled by the system have seen a negligible portion of accidents in the Region.

Ameed Saadulla, responsible for Sulaimani province’s speed cameras at the traffic police, said the deaths have reduced by nearly 100 percent on roads where point-to-point cameras have been installed.

The system was introduced in the Kurdistan Region in May 2023 and is currently operational in Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok provinces.