An eight-year-old girl has died following a multi-vehicle crash near the Walpola railway crossing on the Ragama-Kandana road on Saturday.
Police said a garbage transport lorry travelling from the direction of Walpola Temple towards Walpola Railway Station lost control while the railway crossing gates were closed. The lorry crashed into two parked cars and another lorry near the crossing.
A mother and her two children — a son and her eight-year-old daughter — were walking along the roadside at the time. All three were injured and taken to Ragama Teaching Hospital, where the girl later died of her injuries.
Investigation
The driver of one of the lorries involved was taken into police custody. The driver of the garbage lorry was admitted to Ragama Hospital after reportedly falling suddenly ill.
Police in Ragama are continuing investigations into the circumstances of the crash. Daily Mirror did not report whether the sudden illness is being examined as a possible cause of the driver losing control, and no charges had been announced at the time of writing.
Closed crossing gates hold traffic stationary on the approach, which is why a vehicle losing control there strikes queued and parked vehicles rather than passing through.
A heavy day on the roads
The death was one of five reported in road accidents across the island over a 24-hour period, according to a separate Daily Mirror roundup published on Sunday evening and attributed to the Police Media Division. The other four were a pedestrian struck by a lorry at Katuneriya on the Marawila-Wennappuwa road, a 67-year-old pedestrian hit by a motorcycle at Pahalayagoda in Ganemulla, an 18-year-old killed in a motorcycle collision at Palai on the Jaffna-Kilinochchi road, and a 75-year-old who died after two motorcycles collided on Kalawewa Road in Akkare 500. Arrests were made in three of those cases.
The roundup places the Walpola crash on the Ragama-Walpola road, where the dedicated report gives the Ragama-Kandana road.
A pedestrian was also killed at the Ganegama railway crossing in Aluthgama in a separate incident reported the same day.
