Road accidents claim more lives than insurgency period: 10729 lives lost in 7 years

KATHMANDU: During the Maoist insurgency in Nepal more than 18000 people lost their lives. Each year over 1800 people lost their lives in the decade long conflict. Currently, more than the insurgency people are losing their lives in various road accidents.

For the past several years over 2000 people have been killed every year. From 2018-2019 2779 people lost their lives according to the date given by the Nepal Police. It was an increase from 2541 people who lost their lives in the previous year.  From the past 6 years, death by various road accidents has been continuously on the rise. The death toll is comparable to any other nation which is at war.7 lives are lost daily which depicts that Nepalese roads are extremely dangerous.

According to data in the year 2013-14, there were a total of 8406 accidents in which 1787 people lost their lives. The following year 2014-15 there were 9147 accidents and 2004 people lost their lives. Similarly in the year 2015-16, the accidents rose to 10,013 and 2006 people lost their lives.

In the year 2016-17, there were a total of 10178 accidents and 2384 people lost their lives. From 2017-2018 there were a total of 10965 accidents where 2548 people lost their lives. In the year 2019, there were a total of 13366 accidents and 2779 people lost their lives.

According to data given by the Nepal Police, in the entire country, there are 39 accidents daily. Out of these accidents, 7 people lose their lives, and 40 are injured. According to the latest statistics, people riding motorcycles are more vulnerable and the rate of accidents is high. Out of the accidents for the year 2018-19, there were a total of 7814 motorcycle accidents and 5525 car accidents. A total of 2397 bys accident and 1851 truck accidents.

Motorcycle accidents have known to be the most frequent and dangerous. Several reasons have been given for the high rate of accidents that include but not limited to the negligence of the driver, and over speeding. Several cases of driver bring drunk while driving has also been reported.