A 30-year-old woman died in a two-wheeler accident that occurred at Bhaisepati in Lalitpur on Sunday afternoon.
The woman, whom police identified as Isha Lama, was riding pillion in a motorcycle (Ba 93 Pa 7656) ridden by 36-year-old Kalpana Gurung, who survived the crash with minor injuries.
“The speeding motorcycle had crashed at an under-construction road site,” Police Constable Dadhiram BC told the Post.
According to the latest data of the Metropolitan Traffic Police Division, most of the road fatalities in Kathmandu Valley involve two-wheelers. Reckless riding is often to blame whenever there is an accident involving two-wheelers in the Valley, traffic police say.
“Two-wheeler riders often violate the traffic rules. Speeding in busy roads, violating lane discipline and trying to enter through every small gaps between two vehicles have caused many road accidents,” Senior Superintendent of Police Basanta Kumar Panta, chief of the division, told the Post.
As of May 14 of the current fiscal year, 211 people have died in road accidents in the Valley; 95 people were either two-wheeler riders or pillions.
The division says many pillion riders would not have died if only they were wearing helmets at the time of the accident.
“As helmets are only worn by two-wheeler riders, pillion riders are vulnerable to the injuries during road accidents,” Superintendent of Police Jay Raj Sapkota, spokesperson for division, told the Post.
To reduce the number of fatalities in two-wheeler accidents, the division is lobbying for a law that makes helmets mandatory for pillion riders as well.
“We cannot make helmets mandatory for pillion riders because it needs to be mentioned in the law. Since the transportation act is in the process of being amended we are lobbying the government to add the provision in it,” said Sapkota.
While the process to make the helmet mandatory for pillion riders is underway, the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology has finalised a draft for helmet standards.
According to the division, it is also lobbying the concerned authorities such as Department of Roads to improve the condition of roads and footpaths in the Valley in a bid to reduce road accidents.
Nayak Paudel covers sports for The Kathmandu Post. He previously worked at the Post (2018–19) and spent over five years at The Rising Nepal. His reporting spans crime, health, education, and social issues.
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