News
Road accidents in top gear
Though almost half way into the decade of road safety, Sri Lanka has yet failed to rein in the number of fatal road accidents. Poor attention given to proper technical standards when building or renovating roads, failure by law enforcement authorities to strictly implement the law, and a lack of political will to address the issue are the main reasons for this situation, experts say.
Every day, six or seven people die due to accidents while one in 20 people involved in a road accident is maimed for life. The National Council for Road Safety (NCRS) reported that more than 100 people were killed within 8 days during the recent Avurudu season.
NCRS Chairman, Gamini Ekanayake said motor cyclists were the biggest violaters of traffic laws with three wheeler drivers following close behind.
Last year alone 192,000 new motorcycles were registered bringing the total number of motorcycles in use in the country to 2,546,444.
According to Mr. Ekanayake accidents were mainly caused by speeding, overtaking or making illegal turns. He added that drunk driving had reduced substantially due to strict surveillance by police.
He admitted however that implementing some of the laws was difficult. Many traffic policemen turn a blind eye when motorcyclists have more than one pillion rider or have children without helmets as pillion riders.
“We can’t stop them from carrying their children on the bike. We should ensure that there is a good alternative transport system in place if we are to do that. But since we don’t have one we cannot implement the law strictly,” he said.
Although he placed blame entirely on the negligence of drivers for the rise in fatal road accidents, other experts point to other contributory factors such as technical oversights.
Where are the traffic cops? Young pillion riders sans helmets
According to the country’s foremost expert in transport logistics and road management, Prof. Amal Kumarage, incorrect designing of roads and failure by the authorities to strictly enforce the law were two of the main reasons behind the large number of accidents and resultant deaths.
He said in many instances proper standards were not followed when building roads. In addition the safety of other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists is not considered when designing or improving road infrastructure.
Elaborating on the proper design of roads, he said, a road that once had a speed limit of 50km per hour once renovated a carpeted would see drivers hitting 70km an hour. “When you speed you also need more time to stop. On our roads the line of sight to stop is not enough especially since motorists speed. This needs to be looked into, it is an engineering failure as well,” he said.
According to the World Health Organisation one third of the victims killed in road accidents in Sri Lanka were pedestrians while 47 per cent were vehicle drivers. Globally, over a third of road traffic deaths in low- and middle-income countries were among pedestrians and cyclists.
Stepping up on preventive measures, the NCRS recently launched a programme to paste luminous stickers on push cycles for better night-time visibility. However it had little impact because only cyclists who hit the road on April 11 were targeted. Being the Avurudu season only a few cyclists were on the road.
A lack of proper investigations into the causes of fatal road accidents was a moot point in the failure to address the issue effectively Prof. Kumarage said citing Sweden and Thailand as examples of countries where effective investigations had helped curb road accidents.
He also pointed out to the loopholes in the implementation of traffic law. “Some of the most dangerous violators such as SUVs, Pajeros, and buses are rarely apprehended. This is a weakness in the law enforcement,” he said, adding that the lack of political will to address the issue of accidents was another drawback. “Political will is a must for any effective solution. How many more deaths will it take for the country to see that we need to take steps to mitigate this problem?” he asked.