Trains collide head-on in central Sri Lanka, injuring 68

USPA News - A passenger train crashed head-on into a stopped train at a railway station in central Sri Lanka on Wednesday morning, causing some carriages to derail and injuring nearly 70 people, some of them critically, police said. There were no fatalities.

The accident happened in the early morning hours when an intercity train crashed head-on into an express train that had stopped at a railway station in Pothuhera, a small town in Kurunegala District, located about 90 kilometers (56 miles) northeast of Colombo, the country`s largest city. Officials said 68 passengers were injured in the accident and were taken to Kurunegala Hospital. Forty-five people, including 25 adult men, 14 adult women, and six children, were still hospitalized at the hospital later in the day. Five of the victims remained in a critical condition, the hospital`s director said. The accident happened at the region`s only railway station where trains are able to interchange, but for unknown reasons the intercity train was driving on the same track as where the express train had stopped. Footage from the scene showed the trains suffered heavy damage in the collision, which caused several carriages to derail and overturn. Though Sri Lanka was the scene of the world`s deadliest train accident in history, travel by train is generally considered to be safe in the island nation, with only few major accidents in recent decades. The deadliest accident to occur happened in December 2004 when a tsunami triggered by the Indian Ocean earthquake destroyed an overcrowded passenger train, killing more than 1,700 people.