A scooter driver died on the spot after being hit by a truck in Madhyapur Thimi Municipality-3 Gatthaghar in Bhaktapur. SSP Jiwan Shrestha of Valley Traffic Office informed that Reportedly 26-year-old Woman of Melung Rural Municipality-6 of Dolakha died on the spot when a truck numbered Na 6 Kha 2173 hit a scooter numbered Ba 49 Pa 8944 at 1:40 pm on Thursday.
Read Update: Identity Mix-up in the Fatal Gatthaghar Accident
The driver of the truck is absconding after the collision. After the incident, angry locals staged a demonstration by blocking the main road in Gatthaghar and vandalizing the car. The police fired tear gas to bring the situation under control.
Three hours after the incident, the police removed the body and sent it to the TU Teaching Hospital Maharajganj for post-mortem. The identity of the dead woman was revealed only after the body was sent for post-mortem.
As the situation became tense after the accident, teams from the District Police Complex Bhaktapur and Kathmandu and teams of the Armed Police Force were mobilized. Around 2,000 people also vandalized the traffic island at Gatthaghar Chowk. District Police Complex Bhaktapur SP BED Bista said that the Gatthaghar area became normal only late Thursday evening.
The protestors expressed their anger against the police by saying that an accident occurred when they randomly stopped a vehicle on the road and checked it. However, the police claimed that the traffic police did not stop the vehicle and check the vehicle in that area on Thursday.
SSP Shrestha of the Kathmandu Valley Traffic Police Office said that the traffic police did not stop any of the scooters and trucks involved in the accident. According to him, vehicle speed monitoring was done through a ‘speed gun’ atGatthaghar. Speed was observed through the speed gun, but they did not check the traffic by stopping scooters and trucks there. While watching the speed through the gun, after seeing the accident, it seems that the traffic rushed to the spot,” SSP Shrestha told Media.
After the incident, Shrestha said that when he inquired from the traffic police of Bhaktapur, he got the reply that the scooter did not stop. The protestors said that the accident happened during a traffic check, so the police said that an investigation would be conducted into the matter.
According to the police, the accident occurred when the truck suddenly slowed down after the traffic police found out that they were checking the speed of the vehicle on the road.
Bhaktapur SP Bista also said that both the scooter and the truck involved in the accident were not checked on Thursday. The police initially speculated that when the truck suddenly slowed down after realizing that the traffic was measuring the speed, the scooter went out of control and went under the truck. Official confirmation will be given only after watching the CCTV footage, SP Bista said.
‘We have also questioned the traffic officers on duty and the eyewitnesses. But when the traffic stopped and checked, the accident did not seem to have happened’, Bista told Media.
According to him, both the vehicles that were going towards Banepa met with an accident. He said that when he ran to the scene after the accident, the traffic was attacked and he had to run away to save his life.
SP Bista said that the CCTV footage has been started to be investigated for a more detailed investigation.
Note: The Deceased is not Susma Nepali, Previous report was thought to be a mistake.
