Six people were killed and seven others, including a young child, were injured after a cab veered off the road and ploughed into a queue of people gathered at a Vesak dansala near Meegoda Junction in Homagama late on Sunday night.
The driver — a 42-year-old man from the Piliyandala area — was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident, Police confirmed on Monday. After fleeing the scene, he was arrested by officers who pursued him to Godagama and confronted him at gunpoint, NewsFirst reported.
The six dead, named by Police, comprised three women aged 15, 32 and 56 and three men aged 35, 38 and 58. NewsFirst, citing the Police, said the deceased included a 15-year-old girl, two women and three men resident in the Piliyandala and Avissawella areas, and that a couple and the husband’s mother were among those killed. The injured are receiving treatment at Homagama Base Hospital.
The driver was due to be produced before the Homagama Magistrate, and further investigations are under way. The crash adds urgency to the Police’s standing drunk- and reckless-driving enforcement push, which has run through Avurudu and the Vesak holiday period.
In a Monday afternoon briefing, Deputy Inspector General W.P.J. Senadheera said Police were now treating the case as “seven counts of grave and intentional homicide” rather than as a road accident. Officers had ordered the cab to stop and pursued it after it sped on; even after the initial impact “the vehicle could have been stopped” but continued forward, the DIG said. The driver, who held no valid licence, was found to be intoxicated; two other occupants fled the scene. The Homagama Magistrate has remanded the suspect until 16 June.
The Homagama Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday (2) imposed an overseas travel ban on the cab’s owner, NewsFirst reported. Police informed court that three investigative teams had been deployed to track down and arrest two individuals — including the vehicle owner — who fled the scene at the time of the accident.
The fatalities arrive at the close of the Vesak Poya weekend, with special police deployments already in force across Colombo and feeder routes through early June, and public health inspectors continuing island-wide checks of dansal stalls. Wayside dansals along roads have been a recurring road-safety concern during Vesak celebrations.
Update — June 5: Police on Friday named the three other occupants who fled the cab and asked the public for help to trace them, Ada Derana reported. Two dedicated police teams have been deployed and photographs of the suspects have been circulated. The three are: Attanayakege Don Wasantha of Kudamaduwa, Siddamulla, Piliyandala — the registered owner of the vehicle — S.K. Kumara (also known as “Sellamuttu Sellakumar”) of Pelanwatte, Pannipitiya, and Don Sarath Hettige of Pelanwatte, Pannipitiya. Anyone with information has been asked to contact the Officer-in-Charge of Meegoda Police on 071 859 2179 or the OIC Traffic at 077 949 4188. Earlier briefings had referred to “two other occupants” in addition to a separately-named cab owner; the Friday statement clarified that the three sought suspects together include the registered owner.
Update — June 6: The cab’s registered owner and one other suspect were arrested by Meegoda Police on Saturday after they surrendered through an attorney at the Meegoda Police Station, Ada Derana, NewsFirst and Newswire reported. The two were produced before the Homagama Magistrate’s Court the same day and remanded until June 16, the same date set for the cab driver, Newswire reported in an evening update. One of the three Friday-named suspects remains to be arrested; investigations to trace him are continuing. The Police have not publicly named which of the three sought on Friday surrendered alongside the owner.
Update — June 7: A fourth suspect has been remanded until June 16 by Homagama Acting Magistrate Tharindu Gamage, Ada Derana reported. The suspect, identified as a resident of Pelenwatta, Pannipitiya, was produced in court following further investigations. Three other suspects already arrested in connection with the same incident have also been remanded until the same date, putting all four arrested so far on the same June 16 docket as the cab driver. Police have not publicly identified the suspect by name, but the Pelenwatta-Pannipitiya address corresponds to two of the three suspects named by Police on Friday — S.K. Kumara (also known as “Sellamuttu Sellakumar”) and Don Sarath Hettige.
Update — June 16: The four suspects arrested in connection with the crash have been further remanded, Ada Derana reported. The Homagama Magistrate ordered the continued custody after the suspects were produced on the date set in the previous remand orders, keeping investigations into the Vesak-night crash open more than two weeks after the incident.
