According to the World Health Organization, about 8,500 people die in road accidents in Nepal every year. However, some national experts and government officials still reject these figures. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, hospitals treat about 100,000 road accident-related injuries every year.

The main reason for the continuous human casualties on the roads is the inability of the state’s concerned bodies to manage road traffic. There is no autonomous body with clear authority to oversee, monitor, regulate and coordinate road safety-related work in Nepal.

Road accidents continue to occur on all types of roads across the country, forcing thousands of people to lose their lives or be injured before reaching their destinations. Road accident deaths are just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ because it is believed that for every death, at least 50 people must be injured, some of whom have minor injuries and some of whom may have permanent disabilities that will affect them for life. Police records also confirm that the number of accident victims is increasing every year.

In the most recent incident, on 29 November 2025, two vehicles collided with each other in Surkhet, killing Birendra Acharya, station manager and journalist of Tila Awaz FM in Kalikot. Acharya was the pillion rider on the motorcycle. The news does not mention whether he was wearing a helmet or not.

A few weeks ago, on 1 December 2025, the Nepal Public Health Students Society organized a conference on road safety, in which most of the government, non-government and academic stakeholders participated. Most of the speakers reiterated that the seriousness of the problem is increasing. However, instead of presenting their plans and target indicators, they blamed drivers and road users. 

Low priority in the past

Despite being a member of the United Nations, Nepal has not yet joined any of the United Nations road safety conventions, which is ironic. Joining these conventions means sending a message that Nepal respects international law, supports national policy-making according to global standards, and strengthens accountability. If it did, it would have directly contributed to achieving at least two of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The latest report published by the World Health Organization’s South-East Asia Regional Office (New Delhi) reiterates the recommendations made in 2004, as Nepal’s road safety record is among the weakest among member states.

The four major parties in the previous parliament – ​​the Nepali Congress, the CPN (UML), the CPN (Maoist Centre)

and the National Independent Party (NISP) – had made a number of commitments in their manifesto to strengthen road safety, manage urban public transport, build quality road infrastructure, develop alternative transport infrastructure, punish offenders and compensate victims, and improve the health and capacity of transport workers (especially drivers).

The parties also pledged to incorporate pedestrian safety into the design of future road infrastructure, strengthen the driver’s license distribution system, conduct regular mechanical and technical inspections of vehicles, and establish special courts to hear cases involving accident victims. If these measures had been seriously implemented, thousands of lives could have been saved or permanent disabilities avoided in the country.

In contrast, during those three years of parliamentary term, only a few proposals of urgent public importance related to road safety improvement or road accident reduction were registered. These proposals were put forward by some active MPs from the CPN (UML), the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Nepali Congress. A proposal was also registered in the Lumbini Provincial Assembly. However, the party leadership did not consider it necessary to take the issue forward immediately.

As a result, according to the World Health Organization, more than 20,000 eligible voters lost their lives in road accidents in those three years. The promises of the manifesto to make roads and transport safer turned out to be empty. Nepali politicians and parties, who have been accused of making false promises to the voters, have once again proven that they have forgotten their commitments. There is some hope for the current Prime Minister Sushila Karki, as she was one of the two respected Supreme Court judges who issued a mandate to the government to ensure the safety of road transport users nine years ago.

Road safety must be made an election agenda

There are only about three months left for the general elections scheduled for 21 Falgun 2082 in Nepal. The youth generation (Gen-G) movement on Bhadra 23 and 24 and the demands for structural changes that have been continuously rising since then have changed the political dynamics of the country - many new political parties are being formed and registered, new parties are emerging, existing parties are in the process of unifying with each other, improving internal structures or at least starting a debate towards it. Meanwhile, the government has also adopted innovative measures to register eligible voters for the upcoming elections and 837,094 new voters have registered, taking the total number of voters to 18.168 million. 

Many studies, research and discussions have been conducted on the country's weak road safety management and the need to strengthen it. And, those conclusions have reached most of the stakeholders. However, concrete implementation has not been possible. This failure is continuously turning our roads into a bloodbath. The still unorganized traffic is intensifying air and noise pollution, which is fueling corruption and ultimately pushing the country and its citizens towards poverty.

There is no time to delay improving the road transport system any longer. All political parties must review their previous manifestos on road safety, but not their unfulfilled commitments, and newly formed parties must also make a clear commitment to this issue. This is not a new request.

Almost twenty-five years ago, in 2004, the ‘World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention’, jointly published by the World Bank and the World Health Organization, clearly presented the following six key priority recommendations for governments:

1) Identify a government agency to lead road safety efforts at the national level.

2) Assess the problem of road accidents, their policies, institutional structures and prevention capacity.

3) Prepare, approve and implement a national road safety strategy and action plan.

4) Allocate adequate financial and human resources and arrange means to address the problem.

5) Implement specific programs to prevent road accidents, reduce injuries and their future consequences and evaluate their effectiveness.