I am NOT a highway engineer, but as someone who once spent close to two years getting on long-distance (Sajha) buses to travel across Nepal (mostly to various parts of Far Western Nepal, including to Swarga Dwari), I can say -- and I am sure most will agree with this -- that most Nepali highway accidents are sad and often PREVENTABLE occurrences. And those who die are often the very poor Nepalis, with families whose voice cannot really be heard. Last year, with encouragement from many Sajha friends, I even maintained a count (of highway accidents and the number of fatalities, as reported on Kantipuronline.com/Nepalnews.com) on Sajha for some time, before giving it up altogether. I gave it up because, despite efforts, I could interest no one else -- NGO activists, lawyers and so on -- in Kathmandu to address this issue in a much more systematic way. It's likely that I did not do a good job to get other people interested in this, but I myself did not (then) and do not (now) have the resources to single-mindedly pursue this issue. The best I could do (from the sidelines, so to speak) was to write this: - http://www.nepalitimes.com/issue219/strictly_business.htm One (cynical, if you will) interpretation of why there are not too many NGOs and civil society types active with the prevention of highway accidents (despite Nepal's shockingly khattam highway safety records) is that there are no donors funding such activism. Also, from what I know, the then government's decision to set up a high-level committee to look into highway accidents was NEVER implemented. oohi ashu