Nepali nursing student dies in road crash in Australia

New South Wales, Australia, October 6, 2026 — A 25-year-old Nepali international student, Sanju Rai, died in a road crash in New South Wales while returning from a nursing placement, police and her family said.

Rai died on Friday after the car she was travelling in crashed on Dog Rocks Road in Black Springs, about 24 kilometres south of Oberon. NSW Police said emergency services were called to the scene at about 5pm.

Police said the vehicle left the road and struck a tree. NSW Rural Fire Service personnel performed CPR on one of the occupants before ambulance paramedics arrived, but the woman could not be revived and died at the scene.

Police initially identified the victim only as a woman believed to be in her 20s, saying her identity had not yet been formally confirmed. Her family later identified her as Sanju Rai through a fundraising campaign organised by her brother, Yogesh Rai.

According to the fundraiser, Rai was travelling from Goulburn to Bathurst after attending her nursing placement when the crash occurred. She was a passenger in the vehicle.

Rai was in the final semester of her nursing studies as an international student and had been working towards becoming a registered nurse in Australia, according to her family.

The family said her death had left her husband, relatives and friends devastated. The fundraiser, organised by her brother at the request of her husband, Sagar Moktan, said the family wanted to take her body to Nepal for funeral rites and appealed for financial support for repatriation, funeral and other immediate expenses.

Nepalese community news outlet NepalTube also reported that Rai had been living in Bathurst and had travelled to Goulburn for her nursing placement, which was part of the final stage of her studies.

Another 24-year-old woman who was travelling in the vehicle was treated for head and chest injuries before being airlifted to Liverpool Hospital in stable condition, NSW Police said.