By Norman Palihawadane and Sandasen Marasinghe
A child was killed on the spot and the mother of the child wounded when a van plying from Jaffna to Colombo collided head-on with a private bus proceeding to Jaffna from Vavuniya at Kilinochchi yesterday last Thursday (19).

The deceased had been identified as T. Strowburn. The injured had been admitted to the Jaffna hospital.

The LTTE with the assistance of the residents of the area had arrested the driver of the private bus.

With the beginning of the peace process there has been a considerable increase in traffic to Jaffna.

In another incident a fortnight ago a father of two children who sustained multiple injuries when he was knocked down by a private bus succumbed to his injuries on Thursday at the Intensive Care Unit of the Colombo National Hospital.

The victim Herath Mudiyanselage Ariyasena (52) of Walawwatta, Kiriporuwa, Arupola, Eheliyagoda was knocked down near Baneeth Polatta boutique on the Ratnapura-Avissawella Road about 1 p.m. on August 30. He was then rushed to the Avissawella hospital and transferred to the Colombo National Hospital where he died after a fortnight.

The driver of the private bus at the inquest said he was driving the bus from Ratnapura to Avissawella. At the bus halt on the right-hand side near the Polatta boutique two buses had parked. The victim crossed the road behind the two buses.

The driver said he saw the victim at a distance of 10 feet and he applied the brakes and turned the bus to the left. Yet the bus knocked the culvert on the left and Ariyasena was hit by the right side of the bus.

D. R. M. Dingiri Menike (51) the wife of the deceased said they had two daughters aged 20 and 12 years. He was a labourer, she said and added that at the time of the accident he had been returning from a visit to a patient in the Avissawella hospital.

Additional City Coroner M. Ashroff Rumy returned a verdict of accidental death due to multiple injuries sustained by a road traffic accident.

Evidence was led by PC H. Premadasa (19477) of Eheliyagoda Police.