Austrian dead in Highway van mishap

The Highway Traffic Police said that a 37-year-old man died on the spot yesterday morning (26) at 27.1 kilometer post between the Kadawatha and Kerawalapitiya on the Outer Circular Road, Colombo, when a van carrying a family of Austrian nationals collided with a lorry. The deceased was Schuser Wolfgang, an Austrian national. The van driver has been arrested by Police.His 60-year-old mother was injured and admitted to the Ragama Hospital.

The deceased had come for a visit with his parents and stayed at the Hikkaduwa Tourist Hotel and was travelling to the Katunayake International Airport from the Gelanigama Expressway in a van to return back to Austria when the crash occurred.

The Sri Lankan driver of the van had overtaken a lorry that was travelling in front and was trying to get back on to the left side of the road when he had collided with the back of a lorry that had been parked on one side of the road due to a mechanical fault. While turning the van to the right, the driver had hit the left side of the van and spun around twice for fifty meters. Police said that the van had stopped facing the Kottawa Interchange. Police suspect that the two parents and the deceased son had been travelling in the back of the van at the time of the accident and the deceased had been sitting on the left side of the van which had resulted in him sustaining serious injuries.

Police said that the reckless driving of the 30-year-old driver, a resident of Kandy, who drove the van, was the cause of the accident.Investigations into the accident are being conductedon instructions of Expressway Traffic Police Division Director SSP Mayura Perera and ASP VasanthaKoralage.

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