A total of 2,883 individuals died and 7,282 others were severely injured in around 24,526 road accidents across the country during the last fiscal year 2021/22.
The Nepal Police Mirror 2022, released on October 17 by Nepal Police Headquarters, shows that 25,722 individuals sustained minor injuries in the accidents.
According to Nepal Police, the causes of the accidents were negligence of driver (21,675), negligence of passenger (1,031), road condition (1,014) and vehicle condition (635), among others.
Two-wheelers were mostly involved in the accidents. Over the fiscal year 2021/22, 19,974 two-wheelers, 5,975 four-wheelers, 2,786 buses and 2,476 trucks were involved in the accidents.
Similarly, data from Nepal Police shows that the number of accidents and fatalities have been increasing over the years.
In the fiscal year 2020/21, road accidents killed 2,513 individuals and severely injured 6,453 persons alongside 18,618 minor injuries. The numbers were fewer in 2019/20, with 2,251 people dead, 4,315 seriously injured and 11,219 sustaining non-life threatening injuries.
Officers argued that the rise in number of accidents was mainly because of the negligence from drivers as well as passengers, with most accidents taking place during day time – between 12 pm and 6 pm.
Among a total of 32,285 awareness programmes organised by Nepal Police in 2021/22, many were associated with traffic awareness, officers informed.
Alongside awareness campaigns, officers stressed that they have intensified surveillance against traffic rule violators as well.
Nepal Police Mirror 2022 states that traffic police issued 1,941,758 traffic violation tickets, contributing Rs. 1,418,926,500 to its revenue in 2021/22.
Among the revenue, Rs. 27,572,000 was collected from 27,501 violators for drink and drive alone. Similarly, 10,463 were fined for using mobile phone while driving and 45,025 for not wearing seatbelt.
Likewise, 309,079 vehicles were penalised for overload, 26,359 for over speed, 10,909 for carrying passengers on the roof, 5,532 for overtaking and 5,773 for violating lane discipline.
Nepal Police argued that road accidents can be minimised only with the collective response to improve multi-modal road safety laws, policies and procedures, the construction of safer roads, the encouragement to use of safer vehicles, raising safety awareness among the road users and enhancement of post-crash response.
Nevertheless, Nepal Police, in its 2022’s mirror, stressed that the authority vested on traffic police was extremely limited to pursue the goals of road safety.
Meanwhile, our Sunsari Correspondent informed that 17 individuals died in different road accidents across Province 1 during the five days of Tihar festival. Similarly, 17 others were seriously injured and 163 sustained minor injuries. During the day of Bhai Tika on October 27, 23 accidents were recorded from across the province.
Province 1 Traffic Police Office informed that the major causes of accidents were over speed and drink and drive.
According to our Kavre Correspondent, Kavrepalanchowk District Traffic Police penalised 11,392 vehicles in the district alone in the past three months.
The district’s traffic police chief Inspector Rajesh Silwal informed that they have been intensifying checking of vehicles along different sections of BP Highway and Araniko Highway only to ensure that the traffic rules were being followed.
“Since drivers neglect traffic rules and drive unfit vehicles recklessly, we are obligated to check the vehicles repeatedly along different sections of the highways. If everyone followed traffic rule and drove slowly, accidents would decrease to a great extent,” said Inspector Silwal.
To minimize road accidents, Traffic Police have requested the public to abide by traffic rules and not to over speed and overload vehicles.
Source : TRN,
