A motor vehicle incident occurred yesterday (21) on the Southern Expressway near the 12-kilometer mark at the Bandaragama Baddegoda area.

The incident took place when a car, driven by a woman, slammed on the brakes to avoid a monitor lizard crossing the road and was hit from behind by a luxury passenger bus.

The occupants of the car, a family from Migoda, were traveling from Galle back to Colombo with their three children when the accident happened.

The woman, who was driving, and her three children were injured in the collision, while her husband, who was also in the car, was unharmed.

According to police investigations, the mother braked suddenly to avoid hitting the monitor lizard. A cab van traveling behind the car also braked and swerved into another lane.

However, a luxury passenger bus traveling from Galle to Makumbura failed to brake and collided with both the car and the cab van.

The force of the impact pushed the car into the expressway's safety fence.

Following the incident, officers from the Police Special Task Force and Fire and Rescue Unit promptly responded and took the injured to the Kalubowila hospital.

Police state that the bus driver’s reckless driving caused the crash.

The bus driver has been arrested.

The crash also caused significant traffic congestion on the expressway and resulted in damage to the car, the cab van, and expressway property.

The Galanigama Traffic Police are conducting further investigations under the direction of Chief Inspector Ashoka Kulathuwakku, with oversight from Senior Police Inspector Ashoka Karunaratne of the Southern Expressway Traffic Division.