It has been revealed that the driver of the bus involved in the tragic accident in Badulla had his driving license suspended for five months due to a previous incident of drunk driving.
This suspension stemmed from an incident on August 4th, where the driver, reportedly intoxicated, collided with a motorcycle while driving a bus in Labuduwa, within the Galle Akmeemana Police Division. Following his arrest, the driver appeared before the Galle Additional Magistrate’s Court on August 6th, where he was fined Rs. 55,000, and his driving license was suspended for five months, as disclosed in court today (5th).
The Akmeemana Police submitted a motion regarding this earlier incident to the Galle Additional Magistrate’s Court today (5th). The court heard that the driver, a resident of the Udugama Dammala area, had claimed to the Hiniduma Police that his license was lost after the suspension and had subsequently obtained a duplicate. However, it was later uncovered that he possessed the original license during the recent fatal accident in Badulla.
In light of these findings, Galle Additional Magistrate Lakmini Gamage ordered that the driver’s license be temporarily detained in court.
The accident in question occurred on November 1st on the Badulla-Mahiyanganaya road, near Dunhinda, at Ambagahambaya 4th pillar. The bus, transporting students and lecturers from the Kotelawala Defence University’s Suriyawewa campus, crashed, leading to the tragic deaths of two female students. An additional 42 individuals were injured and were subsequently admitted to the Badulla Teaching Hospital.
