Kathmandu, Nov 12 (IANS) At least 10 people were killed, and four others were injured when an electric passenger vehicle plunged off a road in central Nepal’s Makawanpur district on Thursday morning, a senior Armed Police Force (APF) officer said.
“The dead included five men, three women and two children as the vehicle plunged around 700 metres below the road at Chisapani Gadhi in Bhimphedi Rural Municipality-6 of the district early Thursday morning,” Superintendent of Police Niwan Kumar Khadka of the APF, who is stationed in the district, told IANS. “Of those injured, two are in serious condition.”
The APF said the passenger vehicle was carrying 15 people and was travelling from the capital, Kathmandu, to Malangawa, the district headquarters of the southern Sarlahi district.
“Of those injured, three are receiving treatment at Hetauda Hospital in the provincial capital of Bagmati Province,” Khadka said.
After receiving information about the accident early in the morning, security personnel were deployed to the scene.
“There were 12 bodies scattered around the area, and 10 of them were immediately confirmed dead,” Khadka said. He added that the cause of the accident had not yet been established.
According to Nepal Police, 2,707 people were killed in road accidents during the 2025-26 fiscal year, which ended in mid-July. The country has been recording an average of seven road fatalities and 82 injuries every day, police data show.
A World Bank study in Nepal found that the economic cost of road traffic injuries has tripled since 2007 and is equivalent to 1.5 per cent of the country’s gross national product.
Road crashes also have a devastating and disproportionate impact on poor communities. More than 70 per cent of all road fatality victims in Nepal are vulnerable road users, including pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists, the World Bank said.
According to Nepal Police records, overspeeding is the most common traffic rule violation in the country, followed by driver negligence and operating vehicles without a licence.
–IANS
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