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Nugegoda explodes against private buses
Public rampage after 65-year-old mother is run down
By Tania Fernando
Nugegoda was plunged into a bloody uproar yesterday afternoon when angry people attacked more than 25 private buses after an elderly mother was run down and killed at a pedestrian crossing in the heart of the suburban town.

The public rampage on the Highlevel Road erupted around 3 p.m. after the 65-year old Ganhewa Yasawathie, a mother of three from Homagama, was run down by a private bus at the Nugegoda junction. She was accompanying her 18-year old daughter and her daughter's friend for tuition in Nugegoda when the tragedy occurred -provoking scores of passersby including students to attack passing private buses with stones and other missiles.

According to police, a bus that had stopped for traffic lights had apparently not seen the woman crossing the road. The driver told the police, he was concentrating on the traffic lights and had not seen the woman crossing the road close to the bus.

Veteran trade unionist Gunasena Mahanama, a brother of the victim told The Sunday Times that according to Yasawathie's daughter, the mother had asked the girl to cross the road with her but the girl had delayed. Horrifyingly, the next thing she knew was that her mother was run over.

All traffic came to a complete standstill and there was utter chaos in and around the area as police reinforcements moved in to bring the situation under control. The driver of the 138 Homagama-Colombo bus was arrested while the other buses with windscreens and windows damaged were moved to the Mirihana police station.

Bus services on the route was also disrupted but commuters said that by late yesterday evening buses were plying on the route though they were going across the Kohuwela road to avoid the Nugegoda junction.

Mirihana Chief Inspector K. A. Premadasa said there were only two constables at the scene at the time of the tragedy and they were unable to prevent the public riot.
However, reinforcement was moved in fast to restore order.

Private Bus Owners Association Chief Gemunu Wijeratne, still recovering from a major confrontation with the government over bus fares last week, charged that the government had built hatred among the public against bus operators and what happened yesterday was part of that vengeance.

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