The police said the bus was being driven at excessive speed on a highway made slippery by a rainstorm that was underway at the time.
Majlis deputies said they would demand the education minister appear before them to explain why the accident happened. Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said it was necessary to learn all the details of the crash and discover whether there was any violation of the law. He said the people responsible should be held accountable in a court of law.
Judiciary Chairman Sadeq Larijani, brother of the Majlis speaker, ordered the head of 
Col. Samad Esfandiari, a highway patrol officer, told the Iranian Students News Agency, “Traveling at excess speed on a slippery highway was the cause of this accident.” No news reports said what had happened to the bus driver.
The students were from the town of Borujen in the southern province of Chahar Mahal va Bakhtiari. They were on a standard trip for high school students to battlefields of the Iran-Iraq war. Such trips, called Rahian Nur or travels of light, are meant to preserve the memory of those who died in the war.
The bus overturned on the Izeh-Lordegan highway in next-door Khuzestan province.
