It is just before sunrise at Kalanki bus station and the gateway to 59 of Nepal’s 75 districts is already buzzing with activity. Night buses crammed with passengers have just started arriving in Kathmandu. They are the lucky ones. Cargo trucks are preparing to head back to the Tarai, some of them will not make it to their destination in one piece.
Nepal’s highways are one of the most dangerous in the world and the chances of a bus, truck or car having a crash are more than 100 times higher than in Japan and 10 times higher than even India (see chart).
Because of Nepal’s topography, poor road conditions, careless drivers, and lack of regulation, the chance of passengers surviving an accident is also much lower here than anywhere else.
One person died in every five accidents in Nepal in the last year, whereas the figure for Japan is one death in every 150. Nepal’s fatality rate per accident goes higher as one travels westwards, with nine deaths for every 10 accidents in the far-west. Kathmandu has seen a dramatic decline in traffic fatalities, with only one death for every 33 accidents.
More people have died on Nepal’s highways in the past decade than in the 10 year conflict. Nearly 10,000 people have died on the highways since the war ended in 2006, with the total annual fatalities doubling in that time.
