Rail track a death trap

~ Toll: Twenty seven killed of whom nineteen were lawyers’ clients, claims Bar Assn. secretary

The lack of proper office facilities for lawyers at the new Courts Complex in Willam Gopallawa Mawatha, Kandy has forced them to open offices close to the railway line, posing a threat to the lives of clients with at least nine deaths being reported in the vicinity.The offices of the lawyers are in an appalling state ever since the Kandy Courts were shifted from Deva Veediya near the Dalada Maligawa to its present location.

Lawyers having no proper offices are renting rooms in nearby houses with two or three lawyers sharing the same room, some of them located a few metres away from the rail track.

Kandy Bar Association secretary Dhammika Hewage told the Kandy Times said that even though it is the second largest Bar Association in Sri Lanka with a membership of 513 and 400 practicing members, the lawyers are facing many problems due to lack of proper offices in addition to the danger posed by the railway line in the vicinity.

He claimed that 27 people have died in train accidents in the area since the Kandy Courts were shifted to William Gopallawa Mawatha and out of them, 19 were clients who had come to meet their lawyers, but police disputed the figure saying only nine deaths were reported in the area.

“They were either going to courts or coming back from courts. People are not in the right frame of mind when they go to courts or come back from courts, so the chances are high of their becoming victims of accidents,” he said.He added that though there weren’t many train accidents there before the Courts were shifted to William Gopallawa Mawatha, with many people attending courts, the unprotected railway line has become more dangerous.

“The rail track is not safe as there is no gate. Seven people died on the day the courts started to function here,” he said. Kandy City Coroner Sarachchandra Dasanayake said there had been many accidents between the Police check point and the Courts.

“It’s because people are crossing the rail track without taking basic precautions,” he said adding that as a solution to reduce the accidents it had been suggested that engine drivers reduce speed of their trains when passing the Courts but the drivers did not agree saying they have a procedure to follow and cannot slow down at that point.

“So far no action has been taken to prevent train accidents taking place there,” he said. Kandy Traffic Police OIC A. Dharmapala said that two deaths in 2006 and seven in 2007 were reported in the Courts Complex area.

“It would be better to build an overhead bridge for people to use as with all the deaths, it has become a must,” he said. Meanwhile, a Kandy railway station spokesman confirming that a large number of fatal train accidents had taken place near the Kandy Courts, told the Kandy Times that with many heavy vehicles using William Gopallawa Mawatha, people do not hear the sound of a train coming.

He added that three schools - Kingswood College, Seethadevi Vidyalaya and Swarnamali Balika Vidyalaya - and many tuition classes and international schools are situated near the area which had made it quite busy with many people on the roads.“It is a vulnerable area for train accidents,” he said.