(COLOMBO) – Four persons from the same family suffered life threatening injuries after the car in which they were travelling collided head on with a fuel train in the tourist resort town of Negombo on the outskirts of the Sri Lankan commercial capital of Colombo, police said on Thursday.
The incident took place at an unprotected railway crossing although there are signals and a siren to warn of an oncoming train.
Such accidents in Sri Lanka are common simply because most motorists keep their shutters up and turn up the music therefore they are ignorant to the sound of imminent danger, railway officials said.
However officials also conceded that the relevant authorities should erect railway crossing gates at the earliest to avoid such tragedies.
Among the injured were three women and a man who was believed to be at the wheel when the train hit the car.
The victims were returning after a late-night wedding ceremony, according to police.
