Constructing wide roads in most parts of the country where the terrain poses quite a formidable challenge is a huge ask. On top of that, when transport companies jump into plying their vehicles on roads that have not been tested for quality, it compounds the problem all the more. According to reports, the section of the highway where the accident took place Thursday was yet to be declared fit for vehicles to ply on. What adds to the problem is that these public vehicles carry many, many more passengers than they are designed for. Often, on top of humans, livestock are squeezed inside the vehicles. This problem, however, cannot be addressed unless the authorities increase the frequency of vehicles to many remote parts of the country.
Another major reason that leads to such accidents is drunken driving. It is not at all uncommon to see drunk drivers behind wheels especially in the interiors of our country. This is something that our monitoring mechanism should be able to clamp down on immediately. Similarly, another problem that besets our transport system is outdated vehicles. For Nepalis, it’s nothing new to end up traveling in a vehicle that can break anytime, thus putting both their lives and limbs at risk.
Accidents not only claim precious human lives but throw the lives of many other people in disarray. Often, the only earning member of a family loses his/her life, and in a country where the concept of life insurance is still alien to most, it wrecks the life of the dependents. Perhaps because such accidents do not claim hundreds of lives at one go, we do not realize its enormity. However, if we add the numbers from accidents that keep on taking place all across the country, we might be able to understand that this is quite a humungous problem and deserves proper attention.
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