Nine school children were badly injured due to the negligence of a 21-year old school van driver on a temporary license who drove the van between 80-100 kilometers per hour and crashed into a bus at around 7.00am yesterday morning between the Odeon Cinema and the Mount Lavinia cemetery on the Galle road, police said.
The van is nearly 16 years old and the van driver had tried to overtake another vehicle and had traveled on the wrong side crashing into an oncoming bus. Police said that everyday between 6.30am and 7.30am, three lanes are given for vehicles heading to Colombo to ease the traffic congestion on the Galle Road and the van had gone on the fourth lane.
The van was heading to Colombo from Moratuwa and was transporting school children between the ages of 10 and 13. It crashed into a bus plying in the 155 route heading to Soysapura. The accident caused injuries to school children from Ananda College, Nalanda College, Thurstan College, Vishaka Vidyalaya, Gothami Balika Vidyalaya and St. Lawrence’s School.
The front of the vehicle was completely damaged due to the accident. Police media spokesman Ajith Rohana said that the driver had been using a temporally license for seven months, from the time he passed his trial.
“We are looking into the possibility of taking action against the owner of the van for allowing a youngster to drive the van very carelessly to transport school children,” he said.
A senior official of the Mount Lavinia Traffic Branch said the van had been in an unserviceable condition and was not fit to transport school children. Heavy traffic prevailed on the Galle Road for nearly an hour due to the collision.
The residents of the area rushed to the scene and evacuated the injured from the wreckage and rushed them to the Colombo South Hospital.
Director of the Kalubowila General Hospital Dr. Anil Jasinghe said five of the children were discharged after OPD treatment and three others, two of them including a girl is in critical condition and were under treatment. He said the driver had sustained head injuries
Photos of the accident
source : dailymirror
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