Bal Kumari Dahal, 21, of Okhaldhunga, died after a mini-truck, Ba 1 Kha 9112, knocked her down at an inner road, nearby Gopikrishna Cinema Hall as she was trying to cross the road.
The death of Dahal, a student of Pashupati Campus, is just a representative case of sharply increasing fatal traffic accidents in recent months in the Kathmandu valley.
In the last three months, 38 people died in road accidents in the valley. Seventeen people had died in March alone. In the past six days, 4 people, including Dahal, have already succumbed to such road accidents, the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division (MTPD) data shows. The number of causalities reported last month is the highest casualties reported in the current fiscal year.
"If we look at the death records of the past three months, the number of causalities has continuously risen. Looking at what happened on Sunday and the last four days, it seems the fatal road accidents are likely to increase further if no precautionary measures are taken immediately," said SP Poshan Raj Pokharel, spokesperson of MTPD.
In February, 13 people died in separate road accidents. Since the beginning of the current fiscal year, 105 people have already been killed in road accidents in the valley.
SP Pokharel said that negligence on the part of both the drivers and pedestrians and poor road infrastructures are causing fatal road accidents in the valley.
On February 18, a speeding motorcycle hit a pedestrian while crossing the road at Babarmahal.
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