The Trishuli River swallowed another bus Wednesday morning. Eight people did not come out. The bus, traveling west on the Prithvi Highway toward Pokhara, missed a sharp curve near Gajuri, punched through a guardrail, and dropped into the water. Police say the vehicle was moving too fast for the wet road. Mechanical failure has not been ruled out. The driver survived. He is being questioned.
This is not a rare event. The Prithvi Highway, National Highway 17, runs 174 kilometers from Naubise—26 kilometers outside Kathmandu—to Prithivi Chowk in Pokhara. It is a lifeline. Passenger buses, freight trucks, tourist vans all use it. The road cuts through steep terrain and river valleys. It has narrow sections and sharp bends. Monsoon rains make the surface weak and the visibility poor. The combination is lethal. Wednesday’s crash is the latest entry in a long, grim tally.
The injured were pulled from the wreckage by local police and volunteers. They were rushed to a hospital in Gajuri. Some were later transferred to larger facilities in Kathmandu for critical care. The dead remained. Eight families lost someone. The highway has seen multiple fatal incidents in recent years. Driver error, poor road conditions, overcrowding—these are the usual causes. The government has been called repeatedly to act. Stricter speed limits. Better enforcement. The calls have not stopped the crashes.
What is at stake here is straightforward. The Prithvi Highway is the main artery connecting the capital to the tourist hub of Pokhara. If the road is not safe, the flow of people and goods is a gamble every time. Tourists come to Nepal for the mountains. They ride buses on this highway. Locals depend on it for supplies, for work, for medical care. Wednesday’s crash adds to the pressure on authorities to do something real. But the pattern holds: a crash, an investigation, calls for reform. Then another crash.
The bus was traveling westward. It lost control on a sharp curve. It hit the guardrail and went into the river. The Trishuli River runs fast and cold. Rescue teams worked through the morning. They pulled survivors out. They recovered the deceased. The injured are now in hospitals. The driver is being questioned. Preliminary reports point to unsafe speed for wet conditions. Mechanical failure is still a possibility. The investigation is open.
Eight dead. Several injured. A bus in a river. A highway that keeps claiming lives. The government faces repeated demands to improve safety. The demands have not produced results that match the scale of the problem. The Prithvi Highway remains a dangerous road. Wednesday proved that again. The families of the eight know it. The survivors know it. The drivers who will take the same route tomorrow know it.
