The Police have arrested the driver of the tipper truck which was involved in a road accident that killed 14 passengers of a private yesterday (March 20).

The 45-year-old male had been arrested last night by the Passara Police, Police Media Spokesperson DIG Ajith Rohana said.

Fourteen people were killed and 27 others were injured after a bus fell down a precipice at the 13th-milepost in Passara last morning. A Colombo-bound bus, which departed from Lunugala, fell nearly 200 feet down a precipice, as its driver swerved to avoid a tipper-truck that arrived from the opposite direction at a narrow pass.

The bodies of the deceased persons have been handed over to the relatives after the postmortems, DIG Rohana further said.

The Judicial Medical Officer (JMO) has obtained blood and urine samples of the driver of the bus who is receiving treatment at the Badulla Hospital, he added. These will be used to determine whether the driver had been under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the incident.

Further investigations are underway into the incident by the Passara Police, the Police Media Spokesman said.

He said that while statements are due to be obtained from the injured persons in the incident, statements from critically injured persons cannot be obtained as of yet