Case For Road Safety

With their rampant growth in frequency and severity, road accidents have become a matter of grave concern in Nepal. They are taking more lives annually than floods, landslides and plane crashes combined. While almost every developing country has managed to significantly curb the accident rate over time, the case in Nepal is starkly different, necessitating a lot of effort in this direction. Only on Wednesday, at least seven persons were killed in a road accident in Dhading district. A total of 2,320 people lost their lives in road traffic accidents in Nepal in a year to April 2023, while 28,856 people were injured with many sustaining permanent disability, according to the Traffic Police data. Worryingly, it also shows that females and males aged 15-24 years are more prone to road accidents. What factors are contributing to making our roads dangerous to travel on?