Bus carrying pilgrims crashes killing 15 in Sri Lanka

Colombo - An overcrowded bus carrying dozens of Buddhist pilgrims crashed into a precipice in Sri Lanka on May 11, killing at least 21 and injuring 24, local police said.

The island nation’s winding roads are among the most dangerous in the world, and the crash off a cliffside road on May 11 was among the deadliest recorded in Sri Lanka in decades.

The roof and side panels of the bus were sheared off, and more than half the seats were ripped from the floor of the vehicle, which landed wheels up in a tea plantation, photos of the wreckage showed.

The state-owned bus was carrying around 70 passengers – about 20 more than its capacity – through the central hilly region of Kotmale when the driver lost control and it veered off the road before dawn, the police said.

“We are trying to establish whether it was a mechanical failure, or if the driver fell asleep at the wheel,” a local police official told AFP news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Deputy Transport Minister Prasanna Gunasena told reporters at the scene that the injured were rushed to two hospitals.

“Twenty-one have died and we are trying to identify the victims,” Mr Gunasena said.

The toll could have been higher, he added, if not for the local residents who helped pull people from the mangled wreckage and rushed them to hospital.

The police said 24 people were being treated at the two hospitals.

One survivor told a local journalist that he had been in the front section of the bus and was lucky to have escaped with only minor injuries.

“The bus was leaning to the left side and, as the driver was negotiating a bend, he lost control,