Current Issue [Vol. 12, No. 04] [April 2026]

Road traffic crashes result in the deaths of approximately 1.19 million people around the world each year and leave between 20 and 50 million people with non-fatal injuries. More than half of all road traffic deaths occur among vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5–29. Yet two thirds of road traffic fatalities occur among people of working age (18–59 years). Nine in 10 fatalities on the roads occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries have around 60% of the world's vehicles. A safe and efficient road network for the transportation of people and goods is a prerequisite to support the overall development of every country. United Nations General Assembly resolution 74/299 (2020) proclaimed Second Decade of Action for Road Safety for 2021–2030. As per recorded data road fatalities in Nepal is 2320 which is 5.8 per 10000 registered vehicle and 7.8 per 100000 populations and along Surkhet-Jumla road, total accident no. 127, fatality 33-person, serious injury 223 in 2022-2023 FY.
Surkhet – Jumla road section seen to be critical in safety aspect due to narrow road width and sharp curves. The Department of Roads (DoR) under the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport has undertaken the task of upgrading the Strategic Road Network in Mid-western regions of Nepal under doner funded project namely Road Sector Development Project (RSDP) and RSDP AF with a vision to provide strategic transport connection to district headquarters. Once a road is built, making changes or fixing errors becomes expensive. There will be huge economic loss due to a road crash and requires proper consideration from decision-makers to be more focused on proper road safety intervention to reduce the road traffic crashes. To avoid such additional expenditures, an independent review of detailed designs and road safety audits are necessary to ensure that the constructed road does not pose risks.
Given the ongoing commitment of DoR to build safer roads, the agency undertook the Road Safety Audit (RSA) Study for roads under both RSDP and RSDP AF of this highway to improve the overall road safety. It also intends to identify any critical safety aspect in the road design elements for corrective actions. Road crash costing is very crucial for decision-makers for economic analysis of the road projects which will give decision-makers an idea about the importance of road safety intervention. DoR took intervention to improve the safety aspect of the highway considering the recommendations of RSA through six contracts.
This paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness and benefits of intervention on road safety along Surkhet-Jumla Road after the 8 years of intervention. For this, different literatures are reviewed and required data/texts are extracted to analyse the situation. From the analysis it was found that the condition of road safety after intervention is improved to some extent and some development indicators are also improved during this period considering the intervention on road safetyis trigaring factor for improvement on development indicators.
Keywords: Road Safety Audit, Road Crash Cost, Safety Benefits, Effectiveness of Road safety measures.

This project provides a design of a carton sealing machine that uses adhesive tape to seal the top and bottom part of the carton. This sealing machine is designed for automation that reduces intensive labour that would otherwise be required to carry out sealing of cartons filled with water bottles.
This design adopts the use of pushers, in this case, a conveyor with rollers instead of conveyor belt. This reduces power usage that will be required by the motor to rotate the conveyor belt and increases the safety of the operation. The conveyor’s height will be made adjustable to allow for increase and lowering of the height as required during operations. The system also ensures that the carton once inside the sealing machine does not open upbefore or during the sealing process. The paper also elaborates the designed sealing mechanism of the carton sealer which comprises of fixed system, adhesive tape adhering units, and tape cutting unit. The system also uses side belts that automatically pulls in the carton to be sealed without human intervention and ensures the case is also pushed out once sealed. Finite Element Analysis of the major components of the Sealer proves the system is safe fail as the stress values are much less than the yield strength of the material used in the design.