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Driver says fatigue caused accident
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Driver says fatigue caused accident
The lorry driver who was beaten up brutally in public by a police constable for knocking down his superior on a main road said that it was fatigue that caused the accident.
Praveen Kalaimagan ( 24 ) who works for a vegetable market in Dehiwala confessed that he had dozed off while waiting at the colour lights .
He said that the side mirror of his vehicle had only grazed the shoulder of OIC Maharagama who was standing in the median strip dividing the oncoming and outgoing vehicles.
“The side mirror touched his right shoulder and he jumped to the other side of the road. He was not badly hurt as the vehicle was only then beginning to move,” he said in his defence.
Praveen comes from Haputale and this is his first job as a driver.
He said that he had a sleepless night the day before the incident and had been driving for several hours breaking rest.
His job required him to travel to Bandarawela every other day from where he collected the vegetables and fruits only to drive back within hours.
He had started from Colombo at 6 pm on March 28 reaching his destination 11.30 pm the same day.
Following which he had left Bandarawela within hours after loading the vegetables around 1 am the next day.
He had driven non stop and had reached Pannipitiya around 8.15 am when the accident occurred.
Fatigue had made him doze off while waiting for the signal light to change.
‘It took so long to change I dozed off,” he said .
“I was beaten mercilessly by the constable and also by an onlooker who joined forces with him,” he said.
The video footage of the traffic constable pushing the driver down and beating him in the middle of the road went viral on social media causing wide spread condemnation among the public prompting the Public Security Minister Sarath Weerasekera to order the suspension of the constable.
Praveen’s licence was suspended immediately.