ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - A car overturned and caught fire inside the Pirmam Tunnel east of Erbil on Friday, killing one person and seriously injuring another, local authorities said.

Car accidents are one of the major causes of death in Iraq due to the poor state of roads.

“A car overturned in Pirmam Tunnel, causing a fire,” the Erbil Road Maintenance and Protection Directorate said in a statement on Friday.

“As a result, one person was killed and another seriously injured,” the statement said, praising the operation teams for quickly controlling the fire, managing tunnel traffic, and rescuing the occupants from smoke inhalation.

The tunnel is located on Pirmam Road, roughly 32 to 36 kilometers east of Erbil, which lies on the route to Shaqlawa and continues toward the Haji Omaran border crossing.

The statement said the accident in the Pirmam Tunnel occurred “due to an increase in speed.”

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.

In April, traffic police in Erbil said 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. 

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

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.

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).