Three members of the same family, including a ten-day-old baby, were killed on Thursday morning when the three-wheeler carrying the infant to hospital collided head-on with a jeep on the Medawachchiya–Kebithigollewa main road.
The crash happened in the Gonamariyawa area, Ada Derana reported. The three-wheeler was travelling from Kebithigollewa towards Medawachchiya and struck a jeep coming in the opposite direction.
Police identified the dead as a 49-year-old woman from Padavi Sri Pura, her 26-year-old daughter, and the daughter’s ten-day-old baby. Both Daily Mirror and Hiru News reported that the family were on their way to the Anuradhapura Teaching Hospital to obtain treatment for the infant when the collision occurred.
Kebithigollewa Police have arrested the driver of the jeep.
Accounts differ on the surviving driver
The 31-year-old three-wheeler driver was admitted to the Kebithigollewa Base Hospital. Ada Derana reported that he had sustained serious injuries, while Hiru News described his injuries as minor. Neither outlet named him or stated his relationship to the family.
Hiru News also reported that investigators are examining whether the three-wheeler driver failed to control the speed of the vehicle. That line of inquiry was not mentioned by Ada Derana or Daily Mirror, and it sits alongside the arrest of the jeep driver rather than in place of it. No outlet reported the jeep driver’s identity, his condition, or whether he is to be produced before a court.
The three reports also diverge slightly on the family’s home. Ada Derana placed the 49-year-old in Padavi Sri Pura; Daily Mirror and Hiru News described the household more broadly as being in the Padaviya area, of which Padavi Sri Pura forms part.
A road with a recent record
The same stretch of road has featured in earlier incidents this month. Thirteen people were injured on 11 August when an SLTB bus struck a lorry that had stopped with a mechanical fault in the Medawachchiya area.
The deaths add to a steady national toll. Police reported four people killed in four separate crashes in the 24 hours to Monday morning, in the Uhana, Nuwara Eliya, Weerambugedara and Habaraduwa divisions.
