News
Use of short cut shortens two lives
A father and his eleven year old daughter were knocked down by a train near the Courts complex at Gopallawa Mawatha, Kandy yesterday morning when they attempted to cross the railway line, without using the overhead bridge at the place. They are residents of Wattappola in the Udunuwara electorate. The girl, Bindusha, who attended a school in Kandy has come for athletics practice at the Getambe grounds as her school had no grounds of its own.
The father had died on the spot, but the girl had been rushed to Kandy Hospital where she succumbed to her injuries.
There had been a court ruling by former Chief Justice Sarath N.Silva, over a matter of one-way traffic on Gopallawa Mawatha, that the Railway Department and the Kandy Municipality should have a wire mesh put up on the bund of the railway line, but this has not been done.
This order had been given while the Chief Justice Silva was in office about six years ago but the authorities never implemented this order. People who go to attend courts prefer the ‘short-cut’, ignoring to use the overhead bridge. It is an offence to walk on the railway line, but this rule is never enforced by the railway authorities or the Police.