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| ‘I
sas it coming I shut my eyes’ Last
Wednesday was no different. As he approached the level crossing at Yangalmodara, near Alawwa the driver had apparently asked the bus conductor to scan the rail track for any sign of a train despite the fact that the rail gate at the level crossing had been closed. The conductor after a cursory glance at the railway track had informed the driver that no train was in sight. He neither heard nor saw the Colombo-Kandy intercity express train just close by, its approach probably hidden due to the sharp bend in the track. The resulting collision was one of the worst accidents in recent times, claiming 35 lives (as of Thursday) with the bus being dragged some 50 metres by the train before bursting into flames, trapping many of its passengers. As onlookers and train passengers rushed to the rescue, the injured were taken to the nearby Alawwa hospital with many later being transferred to Colombo, Kurunegala and Peradeniya hospitals. "It is just after the bus had approached the middle of the track that we saw the train speeding towards us. I just closed my eyes," says I.G. Somarathana, a farmer from Wewala who had been seated just behind the bus driver. He had been travelling to Colombo with his sister. "It is only because I was towards the front of the bus that I escaped with my sister who was also seated towards the front of the bus. The train rammed in right from the centre and most of those who died had been seated towards the middle of the bus and were trapped in the fire that ensued. As I pulled free out of the wreckage I saw a woman making futile attempts to get out of the mangled bus which had burst into flames," he said, speaking with difficulty from his bed at the Kurunegala hospital. Somarathana's arm is broken and he is suffering from several fractures in the neck, chest and leg. 'We hardly have the need to come to Colombo. That day I was travelling with my elder sister to the foreign employment agency from which my wife had obtained employment in Saudi Arabia. I had not heard from her for some time and I had made an appointment with the agency officials to see if she could be contacted. My sister accompanied me because she also wanted to look for a job in Colombo," he said. His sister who had been seated in the centre of the bus is in a serious condition in the same hospital. Like many of the 50 odd passengers who had escaped alive, Somarathana, late on Wednesday was still waiting for family members to locate them. "I could not locate my brother until very late in the night. I came to the Kurunegala hospital but turned back without recognizing my brother who had been disfigured so much due to the accident," says Kumara whose brother Buddhika Bandara is in serious condition having been operated on Wednesday to remove shrapnel from his body. "We can only pray that he recovers," he said, his voice breaking as he showed us the ticket from Dambulla, where the bus also picked up many passengers. "He had been keeping the ticket in his hand as he had paid with a thousand rupee note and the conductor not having change money to give his balance had marked the money due to be returned on the ticket," Kumara said. Wiping his tears at the hospital was Sunil who said he had been informed that his brother, Ananda Bandara, the father of two schoolgoing children had lost an arm and a leg in the accident. "I took the phone call which was made by a police officer who had been informing family members of the injured and their condition. When I got the news I consoled myself that he was alive. I did not tell anyone else in the family and dissuaded his children or his wife from coming to see him first. It turned out that the information was not accurate. He is serious, but the doctors have confirmed that no limbs have been broken. We are worried about the heavy injuries to his head. Most of the passengers had suffered injury to their heads and neck area," said Sunil. "The bus starts its journey from Wewala, close to our house and this is the bus that we have travelled in for the past two years. Most of the passengers who get in from Wewala are farmers. Since the driver is reluctant to take in passengers travelling short distance most of the people are those travelling long distance," he said. He narrated how his brother and several others, covered in blood, had got into another bus in order to get to the Alawwa hospital, from where he was later transferred to the Kurunegala hospital. "His initial description to us of the scene of horror was terrible. He said that he had to wrench his leg from the bus seat where it had got wedged and he saw a child being buried alive in the burning bus. His regret was that he could not save anyone," Sunil continued. Abdul Hameed, a resident of Ibbagama had boarded the bus from Kurunegala with the intention of travelling to Colombo on business."He is a dealer in polythene bags and was going to meet a business colleague in Colombo," his brother Rifaideen said. Hameed like most of the injured patients, a majority of them taking treatment at the Kurunegala hospital, suffered from multiple fractures and was not able to speak clearly. "He had wanted to take his child this time as he wanted to buy her some toys. We can only thank God that he did not," Rifaideeen added. And as distraught family members mourned the dead and frantic relatives rushed to hospitals looking for their family members, both Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse and the Minister of Transport, Felix Perera expressed horror at the tragedy, saying that maniacs had taken the seats of bus drivers. This thought was reiterated by the president of the Private Bus Owners Association, Gemunu Wijeratne, who is responsible for seeing that private bus owners recruit drivers who will drive the buses properly. There was also the promise by the Prime Minister soon after the tragedy that the government would be planning to build flyover bridges near railway stations. We can only hope that these assurances and pledges are not closeted into forgetfulness as the horror of last Wednesday's crash recedes from the public mind.
Some recent train accidents 2001 - 9 passengers died and 25 were critically injured at Seeduwa when a train ploughed into a bus that was halfway through a closed railway crossing. 2001 -15 people were killed and 39 injured when the rear compartments of a train said to have been travelling at high speed went off the track at Alawwa. 2002 - 15 people were killed and over 150 injured when an intercity express train travelling from Kandy to Colombo went off the track at Rambukkana, due to the brakes malfunctioning. |
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