Four people were killed in separate road accidents in the 24 hours to Monday morning, police said. All four crashes happened on Sunday, in the Uhana, Nuwara Eliya, Weerambugedara and Habaraduwa police divisions.
Ampara: van strikes parked vehicles
In the Uhana division, a van travelling towards Kandy on the Ampara-Kandy road lost control near the Weranketagoda Junction and hit a three-wheeler and two motorcycles parked beside a garage.
One of the motorcyclists, a 39-year-old from the Weranketagoda area, was seriously injured and died at the scene. Two passengers in the van were taken to Ampara Hospital. The van driver has been arrested.
Kurunegala: motorcycles collide head-on
Two motorcycles collided head-on in the Handagala area of the Weerambugedara division, killing a 22-year-old motorcyclist. The other rider and a pillion passenger were admitted to Kurunegala Hospital.
Galle: cyclist struck by truck
A 63-year-old cyclist from Unawatuna was killed after being hit by a truck at Polduwa, in the Habaraduwa division. He was admitted to Karapitiya Hospital, where he later died. The truck driver has been arrested.
The Nuwara Eliya death was already reported
The fourth death, in the Nuwara Eliya division, is one reported on Sunday — a 46-year-old man from Ratnapura killed when two buses collided near Haggala.
Ada Derana’s roundup adds detail the first account did not carry. The private bus was travelling on the Peradeniya-Chenkaladi road and ran into a second bus that had stopped ahead of it near the 75-kilometre post. The man who died was a pedestrian walking along the road, struck after the two buses collided, rather than a passenger on either vehicle. The bus driver and two female passengers were slightly injured.
Hiru News, which first reported that crash, attributed it to brake failure on a bus carrying an excursion party. Ada Derana does not mention brake failure.
Who is dying on the roads
Two of the four killed were a pedestrian and a cyclist, the categories that between them account for close to 40% of Sri Lanka’s road deaths. Of the 1,749 people killed on the roads to August 20, 576 were pedestrians and 119 cyclists. Motorcyclists remain the largest single group at 617.
Investigations into all four crashes are continuing at the respective police stations. Ada Derana reported arrests in the Uhana and Habaraduwa cases only, and did not say whether anyone had been taken into custody over the Nuwara Eliya or Weerambugedara crashes. None of the four dead was named.
At the time of writing, on Monday afternoon, no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the police roundup.
