At least 15 people died and more than 30 others were injured, many critically as a packed private-owned passenger bus plunged down a deep precipice at Passara yesterday morning, police and hospital officials said.
The bus was travelling from Lunagala to Colombo when the incident took place at the 13th milepost around 6.30 am. Among the dead were six women and a boy and most of the victims were residents from Lunagala, many of them bound to their workplaces, they said.
At least 10 persons had sustained life-threatening injuries and were receiving emergency medical care at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Passara Government Hospital.
According to officials, the death toll was also expected to rise. They said the bus was travelling at an excessive speed and the driver had apparently lost control while attempting to provide room for an oncoming tipper truck. They added that the bus had hurled some 500 feet down the precipice before resting at the base in a forest reserve.
The dead and the injured were taken from the scene by residents and police who had to use ropes to take the victims, many of whom had got entangled on to trees and branches after they were thrown out of the vehicle. The hospital authorities will release the dead to their relatives after a Polymerise Chain Reaction (PCR) test is conducted and they also made an urgent appeal for blood.
According to officials, a rescuer was also injured after a falling boulder fell on his head and had to be hospitilised. Following the accident, the police said a special month-long crackdown will be launched to nab drunk and careless drivers throughout the country.