At least 34 schoolchildren were hospitalised on Tuesday (April 28) following an accident involving a private bus transporting students from the Ranikadu area to schools in Bogawantalawa, Ada Derana reported.
Bogawantalawa is a tea estate town in the Nuwara Eliya district, with several schools serving children from surrounding plantation settlements. The Ranikadu route is one of several private bus services that ferry students from outlying estates to schools in the town centre each morning.
Further details on the cause of the accident, the extent of injuries, and the hospitals to which the children were admitted have not yet been released.
The incident comes amid the wider pattern of school-transport safety concerns in Sri Lanka’s hill country, where narrow estate roads and ageing private buses have been linked to repeated accidents involving children. Earlier this month, an 18-year-old schoolgirl was killed in a Mattakkuliya bus accident on her way to school, and a bus collision in Naula injured 11 passengers.
Source: Ada Derana
