Tragic story of the teen who died while motorcycle racing

A 17-year-old youth lost his life, and another was critically injured when two motorcycles racing on the Horana-Ingiriya main road collided with a car at the Ilimba junction. The deceased, Sasidu Devmith Prasansana from Gurugoda, Miwanapalana, had purchased his motorcycle only a few days before the incident and did not possess a valid riding license.

While the youth left home on the evening of the 16th, claiming he was attending a religious ceremony at a friend's house, he instead joined a group of peers for an illegal street race. Residents reported that such races are a common occurrence at night, often involving bets on cash or vehicle registration documents. Witnesses described a chaotic scene where the motorcycles, travelling at high speeds without proper lighting, struck a car attempting to turn into Ganga Road, scattering debris across the highway.

The impact threw one rider near the junction, while Sasidu was flung nearly fifteen feet away. Despite the large group of friends present for the race, witnesses noted that they fled the scene immediately after the collision, leaving residents to transport the victims to the hospital. The second rider, aged 22, remains in critical condition and was transferred from Horana District General Hospital to the National Hospital in Colombo for specialised care.

At the funeral held in Gurugoda, the youth’s mother, D.M. Dharmalatha, expressed her profound grief, noting that her only son had sought employment after grade 11 to help support the family. In a controversial display, friends of the deceased conducted a motorcycle parade during the final rites, drawing mixed reactions from a community already concerned about the rising trend of dangerous street racing among local youth.