Cause of wreck of car - train accident ... case of boozing
It has now been revealed that the accident which took place in Wadduwa Pothupitiya level-crossing yesterday (27) was the result of a case of driving carelessly under the influence of heavy drinking and not being able to understand the situation under intoxication in which instance the incident could have been averted.
Though it was initially reported by the media that this accident occured at an unprotected level-
crossing, the watcher who was on duty to provide safety at that point had carried out his duties properly; but after having closed one gate and was in the process of closing the other gate the vehicle concerned had abruptly entered the track even after cautioning to avoid doing so and which then resulted in these tragic deaths. These 5 persons who were supposed to be bosom pals had been spending their leisure time in the afternoon at the beach in Molligoda area enjoying a session of boozing. They had left in the car after 3 in the afternoon to enjoy lunch with the five of them intending to have the lunch at a hotel in Galle Road.Around 3.50 last afternoon signals were active to indicate that an express train from Matara was approaching Colombo when the gatekeeper had closed one end of the gate and was rushing to close the other gate at which moment he had noticed that a motor vehicle though approaching at normal speed was not focusing attention on what he was doing. The gatekeeper who noticed that the car was then trying to move beyond the danger limit had shouted with his hand waving "a train is coming .. don't put ... don't put!" However the gatekeeper had realised that the driver and the occupants in the vehicle were not in a position to grasp those words of alert and because the train on the other hand had spontaneously approached the spot by then, he had been unable to prevent the accident.
On colliding with the train the motor vehicle had got entangled in the train and had been dragged along to a distance of 500 metes. One of the occupants had got thrown off in the process and had died on the spot. The others had got stuck inside the car with serious injuries. The people around the area then broke open the doors of the car and had managed to extricate the occupants; but had seen that 2 persons were dead while the other 2 were still breathing and steps were taken to remove them to the hospital. However they had passed away at the hospital.
The deceased in this case are residents from Wadduwa, Wadiyamankada and Waskaduwa areas and they were Piyal Silva, Chandra Premalal, Duminda Yapa, Shasindra Silva and Colvin Silva and all 5 of them were between the age range of 40 to 50 years. Among them there were two brothers-in-law, a person in judicial services, a three-wheel driver and a businessman, it is reported. The police further say that it is suspected that all those who thus died were under the influence of liquor. The post-mortem of all of them are expected to be carried out at Panadura Hospital today (28).