The principal of Dambulla National School, Janaka Wijesinghe, 38, was killed in a road crash early on Friday morning, Daily Mirror reported.
A Colombo-bound luxury bus from Trincomalee collided head-on with the motorcar Wijesinghe was driving. The bus then struck a car parked in front of a tourist hotel before crashing into the hotel building itself. Two passengers on the bus sustained minor injuries.
Initial investigations found the bus driver had lost control at excessive speed, causing the vehicle to veer onto the right-hand side of the road.
Police said rescuers extricated the principal from the wreckage with great difficulty and took him to Dambulla Base Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Dambulla Police HQI Sugath Wijesinghe is conducting further investigations.
Context
The crash lands in the middle of a government road-safety push. Cabinet has allocated Rs. 1.5 billion — Rs. 60 million per district to remedy dangerous locations, and the Inspector General of Police has identified 712 high-risk locations nationwide. A new WhatsApp line for vehicle-related complaints opened the same week.
None of those measures addresses the immediate finding here, which is driver speed on a long-distance passenger service.
Not reported
Daily Mirror does not name the road or the exact location of the crash, give the time beyond “early morning”, or say whether the bus was a private or state service. It does not report whether the driver survived, whether he has been arrested or charged, how many passengers were aboard, or the extent of the damage to the hotel.
No details are given about the principal’s family or how long he had led the school.
