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Road accidents on the rise in Jaffna
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A motorcycle made for two takes four. Pix by Indika Handuwala
Even if Jaffna has changed remarkably since the end of the separatist war, the road habits of motorists remain. Road accidents are on the increase. This week, a 15 year-old schoolgirl was seriously injured when she was cycling back home after classes. A motorcyclist riding at high speed crashed into her bicycle turning it into twisted metal.
Correct or otherwise, some senior citizens claim that the Police do not check licences of motorists, including errant motorcyclists. They say there are quite a large number who did not possess driving licences.
From the Jaffna hospital alone there were 64 deaths due to road accidents reported while in the previous four years the figures were less than 50 deaths a year. In 2011 there were 35 deaths while in the following three years the deaths were 26, 44 and 43 respectively.
Last year 3,424 road accident victims were admitted to Jaffna hospital as against 2,361 in 2014.
However, DIG (Jaffna) G.K. Perera charged that esidents don’t seem too enthusiastic about following traffic rules. He said the Traffic Police have been conducting awareness programmes for motor cyclists.
