A University of Kelaniya student was killed in Waskaduwa, Kalutara, on Thursday morning after falling from his motorcycle into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The dead man is Sithum Sankalpa, a student of the university’s Faculty of Technology, the Daily Mirror reported.
Kalutara North Police said the student was travelling with five friends on motorcycles from Colombo towards Galle on a leisure trip. His motorcycle veered and fell towards the right side of the road, and he fell beneath the rear wheel of a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction. He died at the scene.
The driver has been arrested and is due to be produced before the Kalutara Magistrate’s Court.
Hiru News reported the same crash, agreeing on the faculty, the location, the direction of travel and that the student died on the spot. It adds that the crash caused heavy congestion on the Galle Road, later cleared by police.
The two accounts differ on the vehicle
The Daily Mirror describes the vehicle as a bus, and says it was transporting schoolchildren at the time. Hiru describes it as a school van. Both place it travelling in the opposite direction to the students, and both have it carrying schoolchildren.
The CCTV still published with Hiru’s own report shows a full-size blue passenger bus at the moment of impact, which is consistent with the Daily Mirror’s description rather than Hiru’s own. This desk records the discrepancy rather than resolving it from the photograph alone; the vehicle class will matter if the driver is charged.
Not reported
Neither filing gives the student’s age or home town, names the driver, or states what the driver will be charged with. Neither says whether any of the five companions were injured, nor whether the schoolchildren on board were hurt. The university has not commented in either report, and no filing says whether the motorcycle group had been stopped or warned at any point on the Colombo–Galle route.
Sources: Daily Mirror, Hiru News.
