There were complaints from several vehicle importers that their brand new vehicles which were imported to the country through the Hambantota port were badly damaged due to the negligence and irresponsibility of the port drivers while offloading the vehicles from the ships.
The accidents had occurred mainly due to irresponsible driving at speeds ranging from 70 to 90 km per hour when the vehicles were offloaded to the dock. Since there is no proper insurance coverage and since the harbour authorities do not accept the responsibility for the damages caused, there is an increase of such accidents day by day, complained several car importers.
While there were allegations that the employees who offload these vehicles had been recruited from private firms, the General Manager of the Hambantota Harbour Norman Weeraratne told The Sunday Leader that they were permanent drivers attached to the port. He said that several accidents had been reported in the recent past and two employees at the harbour who were responsible for the accidents had been interdicted by the harbour authorities recently.
Commenting on the issue, an importer of a luxury vehicles from Kandy, Perera (name changed) said that a hybrid vehicle he had imported met with an accident while it was being offloaded resulting in damages over Rs. one million. Speaking to The Sunday Leader Perera said that having worked all his life, and upon his retirement, he had received his EPF, and which was his life long saving. “I have only one daughter and I decided that I wanted to gift her a car on her birthday and that is why I invested all my life’s saving on this vehicle. However instead of enjoying the thrill of seeing his daughter’s joy on her birthday, I have had to lie to my family about what actually happened to the vehicle, to spare them the agony of knowing that the irresponsible actions of the harbour workers had destroyed our dream,” he said.
Perera had imported a hybrid vehicle and due to the Hybrid duty issue he had to wait till it was sorted out and the customs had been notified of the increase in duty. However on the 18th of January having given the duty pay order etc to the wharf clerk he was told that the car was ready for delivery. He then returned home and while on his way home, the person who has imported the car for him, called and asked where he was.
“I told him that I was on the way and he asked me to call him once I reach home. However I was curious and called him again on the way, but he again told me to call him when I get home. Then when I called him from home he told me that there had been an accident and that the car that I had brought down investing my life savings of Rs. 4.2 million had been damaged. For a moment I could not say anything and my friend got worried as I am a heart patient as well. But then I collected myself and told him that we would leave for Hambantota the very next morning and see what had happened to the car,” he said.
Car badly damaged
Perera said that on the 19th morning he left to Hambantota at 3 am and met his friend on the way and reached Hambantota at around 10 am. Through another friend he inquired as to what he should do and he was advised to meet the General Manager of the Hambantota port, Norman Weeraratne and the assistant General Manager Suranga Peiris.
“When I met him at his office he tried to play down the whole incident and make it look like it was a minor accident. They told me that the damages were very minimal, but I told them that according to the photos that I had been shown of the damages, these damages could not have been caused unless the vehicle was travelling at a speed of at least 70 km/h. However they did not want to accept it. Then I told them that I too had been working in the transport sector and I can tell when I see a crash, at what speed the vehicle had been travelling at the time of the crash. Then they mellowed down a bit and said that they will take action to interdict the two port workers who were involved in the crash as they were on the permanent cadre of the port. However I was told by some of the workers at the port that these temporary drivers were recruited through a manpower agency and these drivers are not fully competent drivers, but some young lads from the area. They do not know the value of the vehicles and the truth is that they just do not care as it is not their hard earned money. Eventually after all the bickering we went to where the vehicle was parked. When I saw the state of the vehicle, considering what I had spent on it I just could not stop the tears from running down my face. I just stood there and cried for about five minutes, as this was my hard earned savings after slogging and slaving for years, and this was to be my ultimate and most precious gift to my only child. I had not even laid a finger on this car and to see a whole side of it damaged, just broke my heart.
Then I gathered myself and inspected the vehicle and told the General Manager that these vehicles had been driven by the port drivers at excessive speeds to cause such damage. But the two workers involved in the crash tried to argue with me and say that it was not so and they had been driving slow, and I told them that had they been driving at a slow pace an entire side of my vehicle could not have been damaged. Further when the vehicle was sent from Japan it had 3km on its odometer, but when I got the car it had 10 km recorded on the odometer. This could not have happened if these drivers had not driven the vehicles around. There could not have been 7km from the ship to the yard. My guess is that these drivers have their fun racing in these vehicles within the port. We do not spend our hard earned money and our life savings to bring down a vehicle for these people to play around with them and have their fun at our expense. As I was hard on these two for what they had done, one of them admitted that he had crashed into the other vehicle as he had not seen it coming. But there again it was a lie as if they were not speeding and had bumped into my vehicle not having seen it approaching, then it would only have damaged the impacted spot. However the car that had crashed into my car had greater damage and the entire front of that car was smashed in, which clearly indicated that it had crashed into my vehicle at a considerable speed and as he was unable to stop the vehicle and the person driving my car too had been driving at a considerable speed it had badly damaged the entire side of my car,” he said.
Cost of repairs
Perera says the damage to his car is almost a million rupees. According to the quotation given to him by the company for the damages to the car the windscreen will cost me Rs. 102,475, right side front door is Rs. 63,825, but as the door is not available they have to get it down for him. The rear door is costing a further Rs. 67,025, side mirror 75,280, the cover to the mirror is Rs. 4,456, and the front fender is Rs. 47,730. Then they also informed him that according to the damage the door posts and other components all have to be replaced, which will cost him over Rs. 600,000.
“No one is going to give me the money for these repairs. The port authorities will not take responsibility and they have asked me to claim the damages from the CIF. But that only covers harbour to harbour and damages experienced at the harbour is not covered. I had got insurance cover to bring the car from the harbour which covers the distance from the harbour gate to Colombo. This insurance is also not valid for the damages. The wharf clerk has informed me though that the insurance cover for the car is valid until the last exit gate of the harbour, but I have no faith or trust in anything these people tell me. However even if the insurance pays for the repairs, it will no longer be a brand new car but a car that has been repaired after damages. This is not what I opted for. I brought this car to Sri Lanka on the 30th of January, but I was unable to take the car out of the harbour as the present government had increased the duty on hybrid cars. Although they had increased the duty, the port authority and the customs had not been advised on the revised duty structure and hence, our vehicles had to be kept there as we were unable to clear it. Hence the vehicle was lying there for two weeks. The other vehicle owner to is from my same area and I happen to know him. His car has greater damages as even the whole chassis is damaged due to the crash. He told me that his repair is costing him over 1.5 million rupees,” he added.
This has happened to many vehicle owners prior to this instance and some of them do not complain. According to Perera, had this car been brought down by a company, they would simply cover up the damages superficially and palm these damaged cars to unsuspecting buyers, playing them out of their hard earned money.
This incident could have a greater negative impact on the Hambantota port as it is already struggling to get business and this sort of mishandling and careless handling of goods could have a severe negative impact.
Two employees interdicted
When The Sunday Leader contacted the General Manager of the Hambantota Harbour a Magampura Norman Weeraratne regarding the allegations he admitted that such an incident had taken place but said that action had been taken against the offenders and that they were taking measures to prevent such incidents from taking place.
“We have received a few complaints in the recent past involving two vehicles that were damaged due to their careless handling during the unloading and transferring to the yard. We have interdicted these two employees who were involved in this incident and are currently in the process of meeting with the consignees and discussing possibilities of obtaining insurance for the damages caused. We certainly do not condone such mishandling by our employees and we will take measures to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.”
He also said that the port authorities will take measures to properly train these drivers who are handling the vehicles prior to deploying them on the job in order to prevent such incidents from taking place. However he said that while such incidents had taken place in the past, no major damage was caused. But he admitted that even minor incidents should not be happening and said that the port authorities had focused their attention on this problem and it will be rectified expeditiously. “These workers had to be discharged from their duties because they acted irresponsibly and they had to pay the price for it. This is an international harbour and we want to increase the volume of the harbour and by these workers irresponsible actions the reputation of the harbour could be compromised and we cannot afford that at this stage,” added Weeraratne.
However what ever is said at this point for the people who imported their vehicles with so much enthusiasm and joy, nothing that is said could take away the pain and heartache that they had to endure. For many like Perera who had invested their entire life savings on owning a brand new vehicle, their dreams are shattered. The vehicle can be repaired, yet the owner knows that it is not the brand new vehicle that he wanted, but instead it is a vehicle that has been patched up and repaired. For Perera he will never be able to afford a brand new vehicle again, but the bitter memory of his dream being shattered will always haunt him.
