A private bus travelling from Medirigiriya to Colombo veered off the road and overturned into a canal at Minneriya in the early hours of Thursday, injuring more than 20 passengers.
The crash happened at about 4:45 a.m. near Devala Bend at the 7th Mile Post on the main Polonnaruwa–Habarana road, Daily Mirror reported. Injured passengers were taken to Habarana and Hingurakgoda hospitals.
The two accounts differ on the count
Daily Mirror puts the number of injured at 22. Hiru News reports that twenty people were injured and hospitalised, citing police. Both agree on the time, the location and the mechanism — the bus left the carriageway and entered the adjoining canal.
Neither outlet reports any deaths, and neither gives a figure for how many passengers were aboard. No cause has been stated.
A road police already flag as dangerous
Minneriya Police told Daily Mirror that the stretch where the bus left the road has been identified as an accident-prone location, with several previous crashes reported there.
That is an unusually specific admission. It places responsibility for a recurring hazard on a road segment rather than solely on the driver, and it is the kind of detail that rarely survives into same-day accident reporting.
The crash follows four road deaths recorded on 8 September in separate incidents across the country.
Sources: Daily Mirror, Hiru News.
