Pasyala bus crash injures 44

School children among injured, nine critical:

Rafik Jalaldeen and Anuradha Kodagoda

At least 44 including several schoolchildren were injured when a school bus and a passenger bus collided head on in Pasyala last morning. Nine of the injured are in a critical condition. Police spokesman SSP Ranjith Gunasekera said students of Thakshila Vidyalaya from Gampaha on a trip to Kandy met with this accident in Pasyala along the Colombo-Kandy highway around 7.30am. The ill-fated private bus was plying from Mawanella to Colombo.

The injured were rushed to Warakapola and Wathupitiwela hospitals.

According to Warakapola hospital DMO U.W.A. Premajayathilaka, 24 injured were being treated at the hospital.

Four of them in a critical condition had been transferred to the Colombo National Hospital.

“Nine of the injured are still receiving treatment while the rest were discharged after treatment,” he added. Meanwhile, Wathupitiwela hospital sources said that 20 injured have been admitted to the hospital and four were in a critical condition and treated at the ICU.

SSP Gunasekera said the accident had occurred due to the drivers’ negligence.