A woman and a man were killed on Thursday morning in a crash involving a motorcycle and a three-wheeler on Anagarika Dharmapala Mawatha in Ambalanwatta, Galle.
The motorcycle was travelling from Karapitiya towards Ambalanwatta when it lost control, slipped and toppled on the road, Ada Derana reported. A three-wheeler heading the other way, from Ambalanwatta towards Karapitiya, then overturned and collided with an electricity pole at the roadside.
A female passenger riding in the rear of the three-wheeler died at the scene. The motorcyclist was critically injured in the fall and taken to Galle National Hospital, where he died while receiving treatment in the intensive care unit.
Police identified the dead as a 59-year-old woman from the Kanampitiya area and a 49-year-old man from Heenpandala.
Galle Traffic Police are continuing their investigation. Ada Derana did not report whether anyone else was injured, whether the three-wheeler driver survived, or whether any arrest has been made.
Second fatal crash reported the same day
The Galle deaths were the second multiple-fatality road crash reported in Sri Lanka on Thursday. Earlier in the day a three-wheeler carrying a newborn to hospital collided head-on with a jeep on the Medawachchiya–Kebithigollewa road in Anuradhapura, killing a ten-day-old baby, its mother and its grandmother.
Road deaths have been a persistent feature of recent reporting, including four killed in separate accidents in a 24-hour period earlier this week and a level crossing collision in Kilinochchi that has raised questions about warning systems.
As of Thursday evening, no other verified Sri Lankan newsroom had published its own report of the Galle crash.
