Kyrgyzstan recorded 8,456 road accidents in 2025, leaving 900 people dead and 12,169 injured. Compared with the previous year, the number of accidents rose by 18.8%, while fatalities increased by 21.1%. In response, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has drafted a road safety program for 2027–2030 and opened it for public discussion on October 10.
It identifies speeding, driving into oncoming traffic, drunk driving, and violations of rules at intersections and pedestrian crossings as major causes of accidents. Speeding alone resulted in 298 deaths last year.
The ministry is proposing the installation of barriers, improving street lighting, creating safer pedestrian crossings, and expanding the network of bicycle lanes. Near schools, the plans include reducing speed limits to 30 km/h, additional traffic lights, and building sidewalks.
The program also calls for expanding the network of automated traffic enforcement cameras and introducing digital traffic management systems, as well as developing new rules for using drones to detect traffic violations. Police already use drones for this purpose, but the ministry wants to formalize and expand their use.
Separate changes would affect electric scooters and mopeds. In Bishkek, scooters frequently share sidewalks with pedestrians. The ministry proposes designating separate lanes or space along the edges of roads for these vehicles and separating their movement from pedestrians. The program also proposes gradually replacing rental electric scooters with bicycles.
Kyrgyzstan is also overhauling its driver training system. Authorities have suspended the operations of private driving schools and transferred training to state institutions, while extending the duration of courses from two and a half months to ten months. The restrictions, introduced in January 2026, have been extended until December 31 as part of a trial program. Officials said the decision was intended to eliminate corruption in the issuance of driver’s licenses and improve training standards.
In its country profile, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated Kyrgyzstan’s road traffic mortality rate at 13.3 deaths per 100,000 people in 2021, compared with 13.9 in Tajikistan, 12.2 in Kazakhstan, 9.3 in Uzbekistan, and 8.0 in Turkmenistan. In the European Union, meanwhile, the rate was 4.5.
