Galle mourns as funeral of five in same family held

Mahinda P.Liyanage - Galle Central Special Corr.

The funeral of five persons of the same family crushed to death by a huge kapok tree that crashed on their shanty at Wiskam Road, Galwadugoda, Galle, took place yesterday afternoon at the Municipal Public Cemetery at Dadalla, Galle, with the participation of a large crowd including several political and community leaders.

The tree fell on to the hut of the family last Friday due to heavy rain and stormy weather.

The accident which traumatized the entire region spared only Milan Waduge, a boy of nine and his grandmother Y. K. Siriyawathie, 60, out of the seven people who were inside the house at the moment. Milan's father who is a mason by profession escaped unhurt as he was out in front of the adjoining house who had to helplessly keep on watching the fateful incident.

Both the grandmother and the grandson who sustained severe crush injuries are receiving treatment at the Incentive Care Unit of the Karapitiya Teaching Hospital.

JMO's, consultant P. R. Ranepura, and Dr. Mahinda Hettiarachchi, and AJMO's .Dr. Chatura Nandasiri and Dr. L. K. Dhammi of Karapitiya Teaching Hospital held separate postmortems. They all returned the same verdict of death due to fatal multiple injuries caused by the blunt force of the tree.

At the inquest conducted by the Inquirer into Sudden Deaths B. G. N. Karunathilake, householder G. H. Dhanuka, 28 said: "We have lived here for the last 34 years. The land on which our house is located belongs to Dissanayaka who lives next door.

We on several occasions requested to cut down the tree which posed a threat to our lives. But they ignored it. We also informed the Galle Municipal Council which was also of no avail."

"At the time of the accident I was standing in front of our neighbouring house on the opposite side of the road when it started to rain heavily accompanied by a severe storm. At once I heard a crashing sound and all of a sudden the tree fell on to my house crushing down all inmates, he added.

He said his wife Anusha Nilanthi Gunarathne, 24 son G. H. Oshan Pramuditha three and half and daughter G. H. Jalani Niwardane, 5 died in the accident. G. H. Chaturika Navodya, 24 and Anura Widanage, 34 who also died in the accident were his sister and brother-in-law. They did not live with us but had come from Kitulampitiya, Galle to see my mother who is being treated at the ICU together with my sister's son Milan Widanage, 9. A relative of the victims G. K. Iresha, 34 also gave evidence at the inquest.

The Inquirer into Sudden Deaths following the inquest released the bodies for funeral rites on a pending order and ordered Police to produce the neighbour referred to as Dissanayake at the inquiry to be held on October 7.