Kathmandu, June 30 -- As per the World Health Organisation Status Report, the 'modelled number of road traffic deaths' in Nepal was 4,622 in 2016, and the figure is increasing every year. In the Kathmandu Valley, there were 658 accidents on the 10.5 km Kalanki-Koteshwor stretch of the Ring Road in the past 10 months, according to the Traffic Police. This resulted in 25 persons being killed and 454 being critically injured.

In Bajhang, nine people were killed when a jeep drove off the road and plunged 200 metres off the side of a mountain. A jeep carrying 15 persons fell into the Karnali River and all of them are feared dead. Such news stories appear almost every week in Nepal. This shows that the price paid for mobility in Nepal is too h...