One worker has died and two others were injured after receiving an electric shock while installing an electricity pole along Mankada Road in Kadawatha.
Police said the incident occurred when the crew attempted to install the pole without first disconnecting the high-voltage power line, Hiru News reported.
The two injured workers were admitted to Ragama Hospital for treatment.
What the scene shows
The photograph filed with Hiru’s report is consistent with that account. It shows a concrete electricity pole suspended from the hook of a lorry-mounted crane at a roadside site, with an existing pole and multiple energised conductors running directly overhead across the line of the lift. A second boom is visible at the left of the frame and vehicles are parked beneath the wires.
The clearance between a swinging pole and live overhead conductors is the hazard police have described. LankaNewz notes the image appears to be a still from video rather than a press photograph.
What is not established
Hiru’s filing is brief and leaves most of the incident unreported. It does not give the time of the accident, name the dead worker or the two injured, or state their ages. It does not say who the crew worked for — whether the Ceylon Electricity Board, a contractor or a private firm — or who had responsibility for isolating the line before work began.
Nor does it report the condition of the two injured workers beyond their admission to hospital, say whether any investigation has been opened into the circumstances, or indicate whether a permit-to-work or line-isolation procedure existed for the job. No account of the incident had appeared on a second verified newsroom at the time of writing.
This report rests on a single verified newsroom. The Daily Mirror’s latest-news listing carried nothing on the incident, and no account appeared on NewsFirst, the Island or Daily FT; Ada Derana remains unreachable.
