(COLOMBO) – The Sri Lankan police and army has launched separate investigations into Sunday’s bloody motor racing tragedy that left seven people dead and some 20 others injured with four in a life-threatening condition, officials said on Tuesday.
Two police teams led by two Senior Superintendents have been deployed to carry out a special investigation, while the Army for their part will launch its own probe into the incident, they said.
The two drivers in the meantime have been arrested while they were undergoing treatment in hospital and a Magistrate ordered them to be remanded until April 30.
The police could not say who was responsible for the crash and the organizers were quick to blame the spectators.
A spokesman for a co-organizer said that they had assured the safety of all those at the event and that Sunday’s tragic accident was caused by the carelessness of the spectators themselves.
“Fox Hill has a huge area for normal spectators around the pine tree corner. We have a grandstand and also the normal ticket and high-priced ticket viewing area.”
“All those are in a very safe and elevated areas and the Paddock Hills is there. So, the general public is well-protected. They are on an elevated area from the tracks. For spectator safety-wise we have done the best we could and it’s safe”, he added without elaborating.
Meanwhile, Army spokesman Major General Rajitha Kumara said compensation would be paid by a private company that organized the event and the Army would bear the logistics and costs of the funerals of those who were killed.
The 28th Fox Hill Super Cross – 2024’ organized jointly by the Sri Lanka Military Academy together with the Sri Lanka Automobile Sports (SLAS) took place after a lapse of five years in Diyatalawa, some 209 kilometres from the commercial capital of Colombo.
Incidentally the incident also took place on the fifth anniversary of the Easter Sunday bombings that killed over 260 people and injured more than 400 with some 40 others maimed for life.
Responding to a wave of criticism, the Sri Lanka Army said that organizing the event when the fifth Easter Attack commemoration was taking place in the country was unintentional.
Army’s Deputy Chief of Staff and Chairman Army Motorsports Committee Major General Indu Samarakoon said the event had been organized after five years concerning the heavy demand from sporting fans.
He said the date April 21st was picked as the next immediate holiday after the Sinhala and Tamil New Year Festival.
“Usually we have to pre-plan the dates for our sporting events and send them to the Ministry of Sport to be included in the national sports calendar. That is how this event came into being this year,” Samarakoon said.
General Samarakoon who was a contestant, as well as a member of the organizing committee of the last Fox Hill Super Cross in 2019, said they took immediate measures to cancel the races as soon as the news of the Easter bombings reached them.
He also denied any Army’s link to the after party that had been organised on Sunday night, saying the Fox Hill Super Cross had never organised after parties in its 28-year history.
“Even I too witnessed certain social media posts about a party to be held in a holiday resort in Bandarawela but the Army has no connection to it,” he said.
“Holding the motor race following an interval of four years on the very date of April 21st was considered the next best holiday weekend subsequent to the Sinhala and Tamil New Year and nothing was intentional”, he said.
In a related development the authorities are to bring in legislation that would make it compulsory for sports racing vehicles to be registered with the authorities.
Motor Traffic Commissioner Nishantha Anuruddha was quoted in the local media as saying that many problems have arisen due to the non-registration of most of the vehicles used for racing.
