Hit-and-run victim named as food courier father-of-three Khim Bahadur Pun

Updated 5.42pm with doctors' call road safety action

The 42-year-old motorcyclist who was killed in a horrific hit-and-run in Birkirkara early on Sunday morning has been named as Khim Bahadur Pun from Nepal.

A father of three young children, Pun moved to Malta three years ago and was working as a food courier.

He is the 18th person to have died on Malta's roads this year. 

Police said the 42-year-old victim, who was residing in Birkirkara, died after a Maserati Levante crashed into the Kymco motorbike he was driving. 

Following the impact, the Maserati crashed into three parked vehicles and the three people inside it fled on foot. The 17-year-old driver and his father have been arrested.

In a Facebook post, the Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA) said they were shocked by the news of Pun's death, all due to an unfortunate road accident. 

The NRNA president, Rems Khanal, said the organisation is holding a fundraiser to help repatriate the body to Nepal. 

€5,328 had been collected by 8pm.

Pun is the second known Nepalese food delivery driver to have been killed in an accident. In February 2022, a truck toppled over on Marsa's Aldo Moro road, smashing into lampposts and dropping its load of scrap metal onto opposing lanes of traffic, killing 28-year-old Nepali food delivery driver Ajay Shrestha.

Sunday's fatal accident comes days after a taxi crashed into a hairdresser's salon in Santa Venera. The cab was being driven by a 42-year-old man who resides in St Paul's Bay, who was taken to the hospital after sustaining slight injuries.

According to recent official statistics, six people died in a car accident in July alone. The deadliest week on Malta's roads in at least 25 years was marked between July 23 and 29. 

Doctors call for immediate road safety action

In a statement, the NGO Doctors for Road Safety said it was devastated by the senseless death of the 42-year-old father of three.

"This is the 18th road fatality of 2025 - eighteen families torn apart by preventable tragedies. We cannot continue to accept these losses as inevitable when proven solutions exist. These deaths are not accidents - they are the predictable result of inadequate road safety measures.  The time for half-measures has passed," the doctors said.

• They urged the government to:
• 1. Introduce immediate roadside, random alcohol and drug testing;
• 2. Ongoing 24/7, conspicuous police enforcement on the roads, including roadblocks with random stop checks to act as a deterrent for those who want to break the law knowingly.
• 3. Implementation of the Vision Zero approach, which is a comprehensive system looking at all aspects of road safety.

These, the NGO said, are not radical proposals - they are basic safety measures used successfully worldwide.

"The father who died today, and the 17 others before him this year, deserves justice through action. Their families deserve a guarantee that no stone is left unturned so that no other family will endure this preventable heartbreak," the doctors said.