The recent road accident in Rolpa district, where a jeep carrying pilgrims fell from a rural hill road and caused multiple fatalities, is another painful reminder of Nepal's growing road safety challenges. While road accidents are often linked to weather, driver behaviour, or vehicle condition, the deeper issue lies in the condition of road infrastructure and the way roads are planned and maintained. Nepal's Road Safety Action Plan 2021-2030, aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, aims to reduce road traffic crashes and fatalities by 50% by 2030. Achieving this target will require not only stricter traffic management but also safer and better-managed road infrastructure. Nepal's difficult geography makes road transportation highly vulnerable. Many roads continue to operate with unstable slopes, weak geometry, poor drainage, lack of guardrails, and limited safety measures. Although road expansion has improved connectivity, maintenance and safety improvements have not received equal attention. This highlights the growing importance of road asset management in Nepal. It means 'a systematic process of maintaining, upgrading and operating assets, combining engineering principles with sound business practice and economic rationale, and providing tools to facilitate a more organised and flexible approach to making the decisions necessary to achieve the public's expectations.' In the context of roads, public expectations encompass not only road connectivity and smooth transportation but also safe, reliable, and well-maintained roads. However, road asset management practices in Nepal have often focussed more on maintaining road accessibility than on ensuring road safety. However, a road that continuously exposes users to danger cannot truly be considered functional or sustainable. According to the Department of Roads (DoR), nearly 1,500 km of high-risk strategic road network has already been assessed in collaboration with the World Bank and iRAP. The findings revealed significant safety concerns across many sections of the network, particularly for vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, motorcyclists, and bicyclists. The assessment of the Nagdhunga-Naubise-Mugling road section showed that only 41% of the assessed road length achieved a 3-star or better safety rating for vehicle occupants. The condition was even weaker for other road users, with only 28% rated 3-star or better for motorcyclists, 18% for pedestrians, and 22% for bicyclists. The study also identified that interventions such as roadside safety barriers, improved drainage systems, traffic calming measures, footpaths, safer intersections, and better road delineation could significantly reduce fatalities and serious injuries. These initiatives clearly show that Nepal has already started adopting scientific and risk-based approaches to road safety and road asset management. However, these efforts are still largely limited to selected strategic highways and pilot corridors, not rural, hill, and mountain roads. The Rolpa incident highlights the importance of identifying and managing high-risk road sections before tragedies occur. Factors such as road geometry, slope stability, rainfall exposure, pavement condition, and accident history should be systematically assessed so that dangerous locations can be prioritised for improvement in time. Integrating safety into road asset management means shifting from a reactive approach to a preventive one. Regular inspections before and during the monsoon season, timely maintenance of drainage systems, slope stabilisation, installation of guardrails, retaining structures, warning signs, and road edge protection are relatively simple but highly effective measures that can significantly reduce accident risks and save lives. This approach is especially important because Nepal's roads are continuously exposed to environmental hazards. Heavy rainfall, floods, landslides, erosion, and fragile geological conditions constantly threaten road infrastructure across the country. Many roads in remote mountain areas are constructed on unstable slopes where even small environmental changes can create serious dangers. Road asset management in Nepal, therefore, cannot focus only on road condition and mobility; it must also integrate environmental risks and road user safety together. Road safety is also closely connected with resilience and sustainability. In Nepal, roads often serve as lifeline infrastructure connecting remote communities to health services, education, markets, tourism, and emergency response systems. Major accidents and road failures create economic losses, disrupt livelihoods, isolate communities, and weaken public confidence in infrastructure systems. Importantly, many safety-related improvements are not highly expensive when implemented during planning, maintenance, or rehabilitation stages. Infrastructure such as guardrails, proper drainage systems, retaining walls, slope protection, warning signs, and road markings can often be provided at relatively low cost compared to the human and economic losses caused by serious accidents. Another major challenge in Nepal is the lack of reliable road safety data and systematic monitoring systems. Many hazardous road sections remain unidentified until repeated accidents occur. Strengthening data collection can help authorities better identify vulnerable locations and prioritise maintenance and safety investments more effectively. Local communities can also play an important role by reporting blocked drainage, erosion, unstable slopes, or accident-prone sections. Ultimately, the Rolpa tragedy should not be viewed only as an isolated incident. It should serve as an important warning about the need to improve the management are maintenance of roads in Nepal. Neupane is Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Mid-West University