Authorities yesterday considered whether to file murder charges against the bus driver who dashed through a rail crossing, where his passenger-packed vehicle was slammed by a train and burst into flames, killing at least 35 people.
A top legal official said the driver should be charged with murder and face the death penalty, but a decision was not expected until a meeting between Sri Lanka's attorney general and top police officials scheduled for later yesterday.
An additional 60 people were injured in Wednesday's accident, which focused new attention on the country's lack of road discipline and the safety of its 900 railroad crossings.
"The horrific disaster ... while going down as one of the worst tragedies to occur in the history of public transport in this country, points chillingly to the continuing, rampant indiscipline among our motorists," the state-run Daily News said in a rare hard-hitting editorial.
Police said the privately owned bus driven by A.W.H. Azad was racing another bus when it zipped past a warning gate and tried to cross ahead of the train. Transportation Minister Felix Perera blamed the crash on the bus driver and its conductor.
Both were arrested on Wednesday after authorities found them at a local hospital, and officers were guarding them from angry survivors. Azad has made no public comments.
All the dead and injured were aboard the bus. Witnesses said that people, some of them on fire, jumped out of windows after the crash. Errant drivers do not generally face stern punishment under Sri Lanka's justice system.
However, Palitha Fernando, the country's deputy solicitor general said that the driver could face murder charges, saying that an act committed in the knowledge that it could cause death could be considered murder. A judge would likely impose a death sentence, Fernando said. However there has been a moratorium on death sentences in Sri Lanka since 1976.
"He can be charged for murder and the judge can't give any sentence other than death," Fernando said. "These type of things can't be tolerated. I think the driver should be charged for murder and the conductor for attempted murder."
Railway employee E.M. Jayaratna said the automatic warning gate had closed as the train was approaching.
"There were other vehicles waiting, but this bus overtook them and came near the gate," he said. "They thought they would manage to speed up and cross, but it did not happen."
"Railway crossings have time and again proved sites of chilling tragedies but this time round, the remedial measures taken to minimize the dangers at such crossings seem to have been somewhat inadequate," the Daily News said in its editorial.
There are more than 900 such crossings in Sri Lanka. Drivers often race through ahead of approaching trains, and accidents are common, though not of the magnitude of Wednesday's crash.
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