The reckless driving of the Biratnagar-bound bus belonging to Shuvashree Yatayat is blamed for the accident that cost the lives of 10 people, mostly college students, as it hit a Metro Deluxe bus that was en route to Kathmandu from Ilam. Nine of the deceased and most of the injured persons were travelling on the Capital-bound bus when the accident occurred, police said.   

Most of the injured are receiving treatment at Chitwan Medical College, Chitwan, and five among them have been operated on, police said.

“Some of those who suffered minor injuries are yet to be discharged from the hospital due to their failure to clear treatment bills,” said Superintendent of Police Prakash Jung Karki, adding that other injured persons are too financially weak to bear the cost of treatment.  

He said that they are constantly trying to contact Nabin Regmi, owner of Shuvashree Yatayat, to come in contact with the police in Hetauda and make necessary arrangement for treatment of the injured persons, but to no avail.

He said that they would arrest Regmi, a permanent resident of Kathmandu, and take him to Hetauda if he fails to show up at the District Police Office, Hetauda by Sunday evening.

Police said that the owner of the bus responsible for the accident is bound to bear all the costs of treatment of the injured passengers and also pay compensation to the kin of the deceased passengers.

Meanwhile, police arrested Roshan Tamang, the driver of Shuvashree Yatayat, who had fled after the incident, from his relative’s home in Hetauda on Saturday afternoon. Deputy Superintendent of Police Dipak Thapa said that Tamang, a resident of Hadikhola in Makwanpur, may have been drunk-driving. Kshitijraj Tamata, a passenger on Shuvashree Yatayat, said the driver might have drunk alcohol when the vehicle had stopped at Ramnagar in Chitwan for meal.

Although admitting that passengers had repeatedly urged him to drive slow down when he drove the vehicle at a higher speed after the break, Tamang refuted the claims of some passengers who said they heard a dispute between the driver and the bus owner in the driver’s cabin that apparently infuriated Tamang.

503 killed in road accidents last year

A total of 503 people were killed and 1,757 others injured in road accidents in the Central Development Region last fiscal year, a data with the Regional Police Office said. The data said that 1,207 road accidents took place over the period of time.

Likewise, 135 persons were killed and 282 others injured in road accidents in the region in the past three months alone this fiscal year, the regional police office said. A total of 289 road accidents occurred over the period of time, police said.

5 die in separate accidents

BIRATNAGAR: At least five persons were killed and many others sustained serious injuries in separate road accidents in Jhapa, Sindhuli, Ilam and Gulmi districts in the past 24 hours.

Two persons died when a motorcycle met with an accident at Kankai-1 along the East-West Highway in Jhapa district on Saturday night. Kumar Ramtel and Raj Thapa suffered serious injuries when the motorcycle they were riding on hit a stationary tractor, police said. The critically injured duo died later while being rushed to hospital.

In Sindhuli, one Uddhav Poudel died when a passenger bus knocked him down at Kamalamai on Sunday. The 40-year-old victim, a resident of Kamalmai-13, was an employee at Kamalamai Municipality. Poudel breathed his last while being rushed to Kathmandu for treatment, said police.

Similarly in Ilam, Sudip Gurung of Ilam-4 died when a tractor he was traveling on skidded off the road and fell few hundred meters down at Sangrumba-8 on Sunday. Likewise in Gulmi, nine-year-old Ishwori BK succumbed to injuries she sustained in yesterday’s accident at a local hospital on Saturday night. With this, death toll from a jeep accident at Damar on Saturday reached two. Nine others were injured, three critically, in the incident.