Three including 2 children dead, 3 injured as train collides with three-wheeler

Three persons were reported dead while three others were injured after a train collided with a three-wheeler at a railway crossing at Pelena, Weligama. 

The train was plying from Matara to Kandy this afternoon (03 May), when it collided with a three-wheeler, in which a mother and her three children and a relative were travelling in the Weligama area. 

Accordingly, two children aged seven and nine and the 32-year-old three-wheeler driver were killed in the accident. 

The 09-year-old had died upon admission to the District General Hospital in Matara, while the three-wheeler driver, identified as a member of the Sri Lanka Army, was killed on the spot.

Meanwhile, the 07-year-old child had succumbed to injuries a few hours later, while receiving treatment at the Matara Hospital.

Three others including a child and the mother remain under treatment at the hospital.

Further investigations are being conducted by the Weligama Police after area residents complained that several railway crossings, including the one in questions had various defects.