SLA bus hits woman in Jaffna

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 08 October 2003, 19:29 GMT]
A bus used by the Sri Lanka Army to transport its soldiers knocked down a married woman, Ms. Ramkumar Jesuranee, 27, of Kachchai in Thenmaradchi division in the Jaffna district, Wednesday night around 7 p.m., and she is now in a critical condition, police said.

Police sources said the SLA bus, which was coming at a high speed on the Kachchai-Chavakachcheri road, hit the woman, seriously wounding her on her chest, and the impact of the bus threw her off the road.

Onlookers admitted her to the Chavakachcheri government hospital in a critical condition. When people of the area gathered at the site, the driver of the SLA bus fled, leaving the bus near the army's camp, sources said.

A group of people thereafter held a picketing campaign surrounding the army camp where the bus involved in the accident was parked till the Chavakachcheri Police arrived at the site.

Immediately, the police launched an investigation and gave an assurance to the protestors that they would take proper action in regard to the incident. Thereafter the protestors dispersed from the scene, police said.

This was the third accident that took place within the last two weeks in Jaffna district where army and navy vehicles were involved in injuring or killing people.

In the first incident, two youths were killed when an army truck collided with their motorcycle. In the second incident, a navy truck knocked down a woman. She sustained grievous injuries, sources said.