• Police suspect the driver would have fallen asleep at the wheel and lost control of the vehicle

By Shane Seneviratne   

One person died when a truck with a stock of 1,500 chickens caged in small boxes stacked on top of each other veered off the road at Moragahamulla bridge on the Mahiyangana-Kandy main road and fell into the Victoria reservoir in the early hours of yesterday.    

The deceased Ashok Dhanuska Panagoda (31) from Meegasmulla in Katukitula was the driver of the lorry and the father of a child.   

Police suspect the driver would have fallen asleep at the wheel and lost control of the vehicle. The entire stock of chicken had been destroyed and the bridge extensively damaged.   

Teldeniya police are conducting further investigations on the instructions of SSP Jagath Seram.   

• The entire stock of chicken had been destroyed and the bridge extensively damaged