At least eight people have died after a passenger bus plunged off the road in the Buchchakot area of Nepal's central Kavrepalanchok district along the B P Highway, a senior official of the District Administration Office, Kavrepalanchok, said.
Gopal Kumar Adhikari, Chief District Officer of Kavrepalanchok, told IANS that at least eight people travelling on the bus were killed, while 16 injured passengers are undergoing treatment at Dhulikhel Hospital in the same district. “Of them, five are reported to be in critical condition,” Adhikari said.
Following the incident, police personnel, along with local residents, rescued the injured and transported them to the hospital. The bus was travelling from Banepa in Kavrepalanchok to the Sungure area when it veered off the road and plunged into a gorge at Buchchakot in Namobuddha Municipality on Friday afternoon.
Adhikari said the bus fell about 300 metres below the highway. “The cause of the accident has not been identified so far,” he added. Nepal has witnessed a rise in road accidents in recent years, alongside an increase in the number of vehicles on the roads.
A decade ago, the Nepal Traffic Police reported 4,999 road accidents. In fiscal year 2024–25, the country recorded 7,669 road accidents and 1,900 deaths, according to the official data. Of the total accidents, 278 were classified as serious.
Apart from the significant human toll, road safety issues also have a major economic impact. A World Bank study in Nepal found that the economic cost of road traffic injuries has tripled since 2007 and now amounts to 1.5 per cent of the country's gross national product.
Road crashes also have a devastating and disproportionate impact on the poor. More than 70 per cent of all road fatalities in Nepal involve vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, the World Bank said.