Van plunges into tank – family of five drowned

by Kurulu Kariyakarawana

A family of five drowned while a nine-year-old boy survived when a van bound for Kataragama on pilgrimage plunged into a tank early yesterday morning, the police said.

The group of two women, aged twenty and forty, a 12-year-old girl, two men aged 45 and 55 and a nine-year-old boy were travelling in the van when it plunged into the Detagamuwa Tank on the Tissa – Kataragama Road around 5.10 a.m., Police Spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said.

The boy saved his life after the vehicle plunged into the water within seconds with the rest of the group trapped within.

People in the area who informed the police recovered the bodies. The boy was rushed to the Kataragama Hospital and his condition was said to be out of danger.

The group was coming from Ambatenna in Kandy. Police believe the driver of the vehicle had fallen asleep at the wheel when it veered off the road and plunged into the tank.

The victims were yet to be identified at the time this edition went to press. The bodies are now lying at the Kataragama Hospital morgue. Kataragama police are conducting investigations.

Meanwhile, the death toll of the Aralaganwila accident remains at 10 with one patient still at the Polonnaruwa Hospital in a critical condition. Seven others had been discharged from the hospital.

Four females, three males, two boys and a girl drowned when a land master tractor carrying a group of over 20 people in its trailer plunged into the Z D Canal on the Nikawathalanda – Aluthoya Road in Aralaganwila on Friday afternoon.

The group was reportedly visiting relatives for the New Year. Aralaganwila police are conducting investigations.