Road accidents in Nepal claim 9,000 lives in five years

KATHMANDU: A total of 8,982 people have lost their lives to road accidents in the past five years. According to the data provided by Nepal Police, nearly 2,000 people lose their lives to road accidents annually.

The number of deaths caused by road accident was 1,787 in fiscal year 2013/14, 2,004 in 2014/15, 2006 in 2015/16, 2,384 in 2016/17, and 801 in the first four months of the current fiscal year 2017/18 while the number of road accidents occurred were 8,406; 9,145; 10,013; 10,178 and 3,029 in the five fiscal years respectively.

Road accidents in Nepal

Fiscal Year

Number of accidents

Number of deaths

2013/14

8,406

1,787

2014/15

9,145

2,004

2015/16

10,013

2,006

2016/17

10,178

2,384

2017/18

3,029

801

Total

40,771

8,982

Narrow roads and their weak foundation are the major causes of the accidents that lead to substantial number of deaths, shared Nepal Police Headquarters Spokesperson and Deputy Inspector General Manoj Neupane. He said, "Most of the accidents that happened involved motorcycles.”

Report shows that road accidents are on the rise along with the increment of vehicles. Among all the major causes of road accidents, negligence of the driver tops the list, followed by high speed, overtaking, negligence of passengers, driving under the influence of alcohol, technical fault in vehicles and vehicle overload.