Road safety status and some initiatives in Nepal

Abstract

Global number of deaths due to road accident recorded is 1.35 million people each year and became the 8th leading cause of death globally and 3 times higher deaths rate in low income than in high income countries. Also 1st cause of death among children aged 5-14 and among young adults aged 15-29 with an average rate of 27.5 deaths per 100,000 populations and in every 24 seconds someone dies on the road. Nepal recorded 13,366 road-traffic accidents in the fiscal year 2018/19 resulting 2,789 fatalities, 4376 serious injuries and 10,360 minor injuries. Road Safety became a critical theme and number of deaths on the roads remains unacceptably high. Road Traffic Accident (RTA) related fatalities and injuries continue to be an important morbidity and mortality problem. Human factors, Road conditions, Vehicle conditions became the major causes of road crashes. Within SASEC countries, the accident rate is in increasing trend except a little improvement in Maldives. Education, Engineering and Enforcement are the major sectors to reduce the rate of accident. With due priority we should focus on them and for this several activities/action plan need to be implemented by allocating sufficient dedicated budget on road safety and strict implementation of road safety legislations/activities. The government policy in Nepal for transportation sector is to develop a self-sustainable, reliable, economic and safe transportation system for the social and economic advancement of the country. The road safety strategy is Safe road-infrastructures and services backed with effective post-crash response and conducive environment resulting in little or no casualties from the Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs). In a country where the annual loss due to road crashes is US$ 55 million approx. improvement of safety standards on its roads should be highly prioritized. Nepal has committed to reduce road fatality by 50% in a decade. Instead the rate was found to be accelerating. The rate has not flattened even after the country renewed the commitment by adopting SDG Goal 3.6 of achieving 50% reduction in road fatality by 2020. Following declaration of Global Action Plan for the Decade on Road Safety, Nepal drafted a Road Safety Action Plan 2013/20 to mobilize efforts of relevant agencies in reducing crashes and is being updated. Considering the death data 2789 in 2018/19, we have to reduce about 2000 fatality from road crashes to achieve the 50% reduction target.  So, in Nepal it is urgent to carry out enormous actions on all the five pillars of the Decade Action Plan to achieve the targeted reduction in road fatalities and SDG goals in road safety sector. Substantial improvements of expected number of accidents are to be quantified when the road section parameters improved and up keeping the city’s infrastructure is important in reducing accidents as well as the severity level of the accidents that do occur. Attention to the inclusion of dedicated lanes that separate slow moving vehicles and high-speed vehicles and from pedestrians will have a positive effect on the frequency and severity of vehicle related collisions. The first horizontal curve after a long tangent may be the most critical curve and the risk will be 1.5 times greater than that of the tangent section and accident frequencies reduced due to improvement in land and shoulder width. A reduction in overloaded trucks is also conducive to a reduction in crashes.