Colombo: A crowded bus carrying dozens of Buddhist pilgrims crashed into a precipitate on Sri Lanka on Sunday, killed 15 and wounded at least 30, local police say.
Among the worst road accidents in the country for decades, the state -owned bus traveled through the central hilly region of Kotmale when the driver lost control and it turned out of a cliffside road before dawn, police said.
It carried about 70 passengers – approx. 20 more than its capacity – police said, adding that there was an investigation.
“We are trying to determine if it was a mechanical failure or if the driver fell asleep at the wheel,” a local police officer told AFP by phone.
“Fifteen people are dead and we have sent 30 to the hospital,” which was mostly Buddhists, added the official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to media.
The bus traveled from the pilgrimage town of Kataragama on the deep south of the island to the central city of Kurunegala, a distance of approx. 250 kilometers (155 miles).
Sri Lanka records an average of 3,000 deaths of 3000 years annually, making the island’s ways among the most dangerous in the world.
Sunday’s bus accident was one of the worst in Sri Lanka since April 2005, when a driver tried to hit a train on a flat cross in the city of Polgahawela. The bus driver escaped with minor injuries, but 37 passengers were killed.
In March 2021, 13 passengers and the driver died of a privately owned bus as the vehicle crashed into a precipitate in Passara, about 100 kilometers east of the accident site on Sunday.
