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New laws to push Lanka’s road safety drive
With the United Nations setting an ambitious goal of halving the world’s road accident deaths, the National Road Safety Council believes new measures it is spearheading can make country go in tandem with the world body to achieve the target.
An accident this week involving a motorcycle and van. Pic by Jayarathna Wickramaarachchi
Among the new measures is the new fine system for traffic offences. The Government will publish a gazette notification this month to announce the date from which the new fine system will come into force, according to the National Council for Road Safety.
The council’s chairman, Sisira Kodagoda, revealed that in addition to the new fine system, a demerit point system for traffic offenders would be introduced before December and the motorcycle helmet regulations would come into force from January.
“The helmet regulation that make Sri Lanka Standards (SLS) certificate compulsory will be strictly imposed and all helmets that have no SLS stamp will be removed from the market,” Mr. Kodagoda said, expressing hope that these new initiatives would enhance road safety and reduce the number of road accidents.
Drawing attention to the World Health Organisation’s ambitious drive to halve the number of the world’s road deaths by 2020, Mr. Kodagoda that Sri Lanka’s journey towards this goal would have been less tiresome, if the governments prior to 2015 had given a serious thought to the problem and taken effective measures.
Police statistics show the average monthly fatalities from road accidents have remained around 247 deaths in the past two years. Last year, 2,961 people were killed in 2,798 road accidents. In the first nine months of this year, 2,228 people died in 2,116 road accident. Last year, some 8,500 people suffered serious injuries and 13,961 minor injuries in road accidents. For the first eight months of this year, 5,565 people suffered serious injuries and 9,180 people minor injuries.
Explaining the new fine system, the National Road Safety Council chief said the heavy fine of Rs. 25,000 would not be applicable to offences connected with overtaking from left and speeding beyond the allowed limit. He said the existing fines would apply to these two offences, while the enhanced fine of 25,000 will be applied to five other serious traffic offences.
These offences are: Driving without a valid driving licence, deploying persons without driving licence in services, driving under the influence liquor and drugs, driving a vehicle across a railway track when the gates are closed and driving a vehicle without a valued insurance cover.
Police media spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara told the Sunday Times many road accidents were caused due to negligence.
He said the Police needed to enforce the laws strictly, especially with regard to major offences, and send minor offenders to follow the instruction classes the police conducted in the weekends.
He said the reward system for good drivers was being tried out in Colombo, Kandy and Kurunegala.
SP Gunasekera also spelt out five factors that were required to ensure greater road safety.
The state of the driver, the condition of the vehicle, the infrastructure, the pedestrians’ behaviour and institutions enforcing laws have to be in check, he said.
“The five factors are correlating and if one fails, then it will lead to accidents,” he said.
A case in point to underscore the five factors was last Friday’s multi-vehicle accident on the Mahiyangana-Badulla road.
The Badulla Police said a three-wheeler, which lost control after one of its wheels came off, hit the rear wheel of an oncoming lorry. Following the impact, the three-wheeler collided with a car that was coming behind the lorry.
The three wheeler driver is receiving treatment in the Badulla Hospital. Investigations indicated that the accident occurred because of the bad condition of the vehicle.
In another accident this week, a motorcyclist was killed when a lorry coming down the Anderson Road suddenly cut to its right to avoid an oncoming car, hitting the motorcycle in the process. The rider was thrown away into the roadside drain and he died after being admitted to the Kalubowila hospital.
Prof. Amal S. Kumarage, Senior Professor of the Department of Transport and Logistics at the University of Moratuwa, said the deficiency in designing roads in keeping with safety standards and the condition of the vehicles involved in accidents have to be studied for action to be taken to amend the current flaws.
“To maintain safety standards of roads, relevant institutions must be held accountable,” he said.
Prof. Kumarage said that as a result of the large tax component on vehicles, most people were compelled to buy less expensive vehicles whose safety standards were wanting.
He identified the unsafe road, the state of the vehicle and the driver as the three main factors that often worked in combination to cause accidents.
The expert called for the review of the drivers’ manual as it had not been updated for the past 50 years.
Automobile Association Secretary Devapriya Hettiarachchi said he believed that those who sought driving licences were not being thoroughly tested by Motor Vehicle Department examiners. Perhaps, this was due to practical problems arising from the need to process thousands of applicants daily.
He said a proposal was now being discussed to allow the Police, the Sri Lanka Transport Board and the Automobile Association to conduct driving lessons and a Cabinet paper in this regard was expected to be presented in the coming months.