the "loving, caring" god strikes again


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Topic: Religions > Bible
User: "SheBlewHimDidYouBlowHim"
Date: 27 Apr 2005 06:57:33 AM
Object: the "loving, caring" god strikes again
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/04/27/srilanka.trainsmash/index.html
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka -- An intercity train has smashed into a crowded
passenger bus on a crossing in northwestern Sri Lanka, killing at least 60
people and injuring 40 others, police say.
At least 37 bodies had been brought to a hospital, a hospital source told
CNN.
The bus, which was dragged by the train after the collision early Wednesday,
lay in a mangled heap of metal with its middle torn open, news agencies
reported.
A passenger bus ignored warning signs and tried to cross the railroad track
as the train approached, K. A. Premasiri of the railway department told The
Associated Press.
Railway employee, E.M. Jayaratna, who was on duty, said the automatic gate
had closed as the train was approaching.
"There were other vehicles waiting, but this bus overtook them and came near
the gate," he told AP.
"They thought they will manage to speed up and cross, but it did not
happen."
Initial investigations suggested two buses "were competing with each other
to reach Colombo faster," a police spokesman told AP.
The accident occurred at 8:35 a.m. (2:35 a.m. GMT) Wednesday in the small
town of Plogahawela, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital,
Colombo, along the Colombo-Kandy rail line.
"They are still bringing in the injured. There are more than 40 injured in
the hospital so far," Nalika Bandara, a healthcare officer at Kurunegala
government hospital near the crash site, said according to a Reuters news
service report.
Barriers at level-crossings in Sri Lanka stop road traffic on one lane and
the opposite lane stays open, allowing many motorists to wind their way
around them.
The federal government said it was saddened by the tragedy.
"We have immediately informed services to help the victims, and have sent a
team to the location as well to see what can be done," Transport Minister
Felix Perera told local television station Sirasa TV.
"Right now what we can do is not to think of the train but to think of the
lives of the injured passengers and the dead. Now we are concentrating on
what can be done to help the victims."
The loss-making, state-run Sri Lanka Railways operates an antiquated network
built largely during British colonial rule, and has seen little investment
since the island gained independence in 1948.
The country's road and rail systems, like most of its infrastructure, were
further neglected during two decades of civil war since the early 1980s when
Tamil Tiger rebels launched a revolt for a separate ethnic homeland.
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