Police warn bus crews for flouting COVID guidelines

Drivers and conductors of a large number of passenger transport buses were stopped and severely warned by police in Dambulla yesterday due to transporting passengers at over capacity in clear violation of COVID-19 guidelines. 

Police said many long distance buses on their way to locations such as Anuradhapura, Vavuniya, Jaffna and Kandy through Dambulla had been carrying more passengers than the number of seats in them, in violaton of COVID-19 guidelines. 

Among the buses that were stopped was a 'Sisu Seriya' school transport bus belonging to the Dambulla Sri Lanka Transport Board (SLTB) depot. The bus was packed with school students.

Police released the bus after sternly warning the driver and conductor for transporting school students in such an unsafe manner despite constant reminders by health authorities on the need to minimise the risk of infection. They noted that if there were so many students, it was the responsibility of the SLTB depot to allocate more buses for the route to take students to school. 

Text and Pix by Kanchana Kumara Ariyadasa