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Ambulance officials allege burst tyre shows truck was at fault
A probe into last week’s ambulance accident in which a doctor and another hospital employee were killed in Puttalam after a collision with a truck has taken a twist with strong protests by health sector workers that police had failed to carry out a proper investigation.
Police initially blamed the ambulance driver for the accident, in which three persons were injured, saying the driver had fallen asleep. They have now said it was the fault of the truck driver whose truck had apparently veered towards the right-hand side of the road.
Call for fair investigation: Health workers of the hospital which the doctor who was killed in the accident was attached to protest. Pic by Karuwalagaswewa Jayaratne
The truck driver was released on bail on Friday. The truck had been heading from Kilinochchi towards Colombo loaded with sections of a podium used at a public meeting.
Health sector trade unions including the Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) called for a fair investigation of the accident.
The three injured people – the ambulance driver, a nurse and an attendant – are undergoing treatment at the national hospital in Colombo.
All-Island Nurses Union chairman Amila Ratnayake, said the injured nurse, who was about to become a permanent staff member had broken her thighbone and had undergone surgery last Wednesday.
He said only the ambulance driver could serve as a witness from among those who were in the ambulance as his assistant who had been in the front passenger seat, had been killed and the other three passengers had been at the rear of the ambulance which had been screened off with a partition.
The organiser and media spokesman of the Western Province Ambulance Drivers’ Association, M.D.A Wijesekera, said the police had not investigated the incident properly and had made a report based on the truck driver’s version of events.
He said that earlier the truck driver had stated that the ambulance driver appeared to have fallen asleep and been coming in his direction. The truck driver claimed he had turned the wheel to the right to avoid the ambulance.
Mr. Wijesekera claimed that the ambulance driver had to cross a narrow bridge which has humps on both ends and a bend a few metres before reaching the accident point and that if he had fallen asleep he would have met with an accident before hitting the truck.
The ambulance was returning from Colombo after dropping off a three-month-old child at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital.
“Since the ambulance driver was returning after dropping off the patient he was in no hurry to return. Ambulance drivers have the privilege of sleep at any hospital or to park the ambulance on the road rest if they are sleepy,” Mr. Wijesekera said. He said when association representatives had visited the scene of the accident they found that the truck’s left tyre had burst.
He said he had been driving for 36 years and knew that if a vehicle had a puncture in a tyre the vehicle slewed towards the side of the punctured tyre.
“This is the first time I heard of a puncture of the left tyre dragging a vehicle to the right. According to my driving experience it cannot happen and I believe the tire burst when the impact occurred, not before the accident, as the truck driver claimed,” he said.
He said three police officers had been interdicted for tampering with the evidence by letting the heavy load in the truck be taken away by the owner of the demountable podium.
Usually until investigations are over the goods in the vehicles cannot be unloaded.
Puttalam Division SSP Padmalal Sandunghawatte said three officers had been interdicted after a departmental investigation.
He claimed this would not affect the investigation.
He said the unloading of the truck did not alter the question of who had been at fault.
Police Media Spokesman SSP Ajith Rohana said police had come to the view that the truck driver had come from the right side of the road and had suddenly swerved into the path of the ambulance. He explained that it was possible that the ambulance driver had lost control when the truck barricaded the road.
He said the truck driver had been subjected to a breathalyser test and had not consumed alcohol. He had also been checked by a Judicial Medical Officer.
The truck driver faced five charges including failure to avoid an accident, reckless driving, and causing death.
Government Medical Officers Association (GMOA) assistant secretary Dr. Nalinda Herath said that justice must be done by the trainee doctor, Ishani Eranga Jayawardene, who was killed in the accident.
Dr. Herath said new doctors hesitated to travel in ambulances as they lacked insurance cover.