A woman died after she was hit by a car in Budhanilkantha, Kathmandu, on Saturday morning.
Lila Devkota of Budhanilkantha, who was critically injured in the incident, died in the course of treatment in Neuro Hospital later in the day, police said.
Police have detained Prithvi Malla, 21, and Karish Maskey, 20, in connection to the accident.
The duo was held from the scene of the accident scene.
“The car had ploughed into a pole after hitting the woman. The two young men inside the vehicle were drunk at the time of the accident,” said Deputy Superintendent of Police Umesh Lamsal, chief of the Maharajgunj Police Circle.
Police say driving under the influence remains one of the major causes of road accidents despite the strict enforcement of the anti-drink driving rule.
According to the data maintained by the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, around 200 drink driving-related road accidents have been reported in the first five months of the running fiscal year.
In the fiscal year 2018/19, the number of accidents related to drink driving stood at 283, according to the traffic police division. Similarly, in the fiscal year 2017/18, the division recorded 221 cases of drink driving-related accidents. There were 167 cases of road accidents involving drunk drivers in the fiscal year 2016/17.
Several of these accidents have resulted in fatalities of vehicle occupants as well as pedestrians.
In the last five years, at least 321 people have died after being hit by vehicles in the Kathmandu Valley alone, according to the traffic police division.
Senior Superintendent of Police Bhim Dhakal, chief of the division, said tens of thousands of people are booked for driving under the influence every year.
“We have already booked over 40,000 people for drink driving offence in the first five months of this fiscal year,” Dhakal said.
Shuvam Dhungana was a crime and social affairs reporter for The Kathmandu Post. Before joining the Post, Dhungana worked for The Himalayan Times and Republica.
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