HEAD ON COLLISION WITH BEER TRUCK AND PASSENGER BUS KILLS AT LEAST 25 INCLUDING THE BEER TRUCK DRIVER.

By Walter Jayawardhana

bus accident at Induruwa near Galle (Photos by Reuter)

At least thirty passengers died and 57 others were injured when a container beer truck collided head on with a passenger bus on Galle Road at Induruwa, in Southern Sri Lanka.

The vehicles caught fire immediately on impact and most of the victims burnt to death the police said.
The accident occurred just in front of the resort town of induruwa, on the main coastal road connecting Galle and Colombo about 43 miles South of Colombo, the police said. (70 kilometers) at a bend.

Head of the local hospital Dr. Jayampathy Senanayaka said 57 passengers who were critically injured were brought to the hospital for treatment and some of them immediately went into surgery.

Many of the dead bodies brought to the hospital morgue were badly charred and could be identified only by personal effects and clothes, police said. The beer truck driver was killed on the spot.
Eyewitnesses said, in the resulting fire beer bottles were exploded making people to think that a vehicle bomb had gone off.

It was in January that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam ( LTTE) exploded a bomb in a bus killing scores of civilian passengers in the same area. Hundreds of broken beer bottles were strewn all over the accident scene. In fact, the bus had been thoroughly checked for bombs moments before the accident.

The Tuesday morning accident happened with the beer truck going South toward Galle colliding with the bus going to Colombo..