The wreckage of the bus following the accident. (image-X/NetAxisGroup)

Sri Lanka: Following the country’s worst bus crash in nearly two decades, Sri Lanka will use artificial intelligence to monitor bus drivers and make seat belts mandatory on public transport, a minister said on Wednesday.

On May 11, a bus carrying over 70 Buddhist pilgrims, around 20 more than its capacity, crashed in a mountainous area near the town of Kotmale, east of Colombo. The accident killed 23 people and left many others injured.

Also Read | India Renews $50 Million Treasury Bill For Maldives For A Year

According to reports, the roof and side panels of the bus were sheared off, and more than half the seats were ripped from the floor of the vehicle.

Sri Lanka records an average of 3,000 road fatalities in a year and has some of the most dangerous roads in the world.

Buses will be equipped with driver monitoring systems from next year, while seat belts will become compulsory on public transport from June, Transport Minister Bimal Rathnayake said.

“We are going to make AI-backed driver observation systems mandatory on all buses from next year, and we will expand them to all long-distance trucks as well,” he said.

Rathnayake added that the changes are aimed at “educating motorists to develop a better driving culture and improving safety standards”.

Officials stated that 54 passengers were taken to the hospital. Preliminary enquiries have found no immediate indication of driver error yet.

Also Read | Learn About Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) Decision To Dissolve Itself

Another driver had reported a problem with the state-owned bus’s steering wheel the day before, but managers said it was attended to, as per reports. An investigation into what led to the accident is underway.

In March 2021, 13 passengers and the driver of a privately owned bus died when the vehicle crashed into a precipice in Passara, about 100 kilometres east of the site of Sunday’s crash.