|
|
|
| Sunday, 25 September 2005 |
 |
|
 |
News |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Sunday Observer, the GMR and Nimal Fernando On Sunday August 21, 2005 the Sunday Observer carried a news story quoting a former SLR Chief Telecommunications Engineer Nimal Fernando that the GMR could have averted the Peraliya train disaster on December 26, 2004. Subsequently the Sunday Observer of August 28, 2005 carried the GMR's response wherein he claimed that he and his officers took every possible measure to avert the disaster but was unable to do so as the Train Controller's message reached Ambalangoda seconds after the train left the station. In reply to the GMR's response Nimal Fernando has sent us a long letter reiterating his former position and setting out several new points. As the Sunday Observer does not wish to torment its readers with a long drawn out debate between the GMR and Nimal Fernando the Editor has decided to close the debate with one observation that is relevant to the published statements: In his observations the GMR had stated that had the old belling system been in operation it could have been used to alert the Station staff but that facility was left out when designing and installing the new system with which Nimal Fernando was also associated. Nimal Fernando in his letter to us has claimed that the SLR had taken out the emergency belling system as way back as 1980s much earlier than the time of installation of the new system. |
|
| News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
