Kathmandu, April 5 -- At 5AM on 12 December 2019, residents of Khadichaur of Sindhupalchok district woke up to a loud crash. A bus had careened off a hairpin bend and plunged 500m down the mountain, killing 17 and wounding 18 passengers.

They were pilgrims on the way back from the Kalinchok shrine. A little over a year later, the tragedy has become part of the deadly statistics ofNepal's highway accidentsin which an average of seven people die every day.

"There was a pile of bodies, some with their limbs severed. I had never before seen such a horrendous sight," recalls Mithu Mijar. "All we could do was help lift the bodies and place them in ambulances."

Tara Bahadur Karki is still traumatised by the sight, and cannot walk past the sit...