Delivering road safety in Nepal: Leadership priorities and initiatives to 2030
Delivering road safety in Nepal: Leadership priorities and initiatives to 2030
Road crash deaths and injuries in Nepal have been on a sharp upward trajectory since the early 2000s. In fiscal year 2017–18, 2,541 road deaths were officially reported in Nepal, which is equivalent to a fatality rate of 8.59 per 100,000 population. In the same period, 4,144 serious injury and several minor injury victims were also officially reported. However, according to World Health Organization data the estimated fatality rate in 2016 was 15.9 per 100,000 population, which is nearly double the official estimate. Nepal has a National Road Safety Strategy and Road Safety Action Plan based on the five pillars of the United Nations Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020: road safety management; safer roads and mobility; safer vehicles; safer road users; and post-crash response. However, only limited progress has been made on addressing these pillars and consequently Nepal is facing serious road safety challenges