Revive National Council for Road Safety
What has happened to the National Council for Road Safety, a high-level representative body set up in 1998 to ensure the quick sorting of problems?

With members from the fields of transport, highways, education, finance and planning, provincial government, University of Moratuwa, UDA, RDA, National Transport Commission, Department of Motor Traffic, Sri Lanka Transport Board, Ceylon Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Automobile Association, Police Department, CMC and Controller of Insurance, it was set up to find immediate solutions to urgent problems. "When the Transport and Highways Ministry was bifurcated the Council fell into abeyance," said Cecil Amerasinghe, Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Transport and Highways.

He assured that it would be revived soon with wider representation, even bringing in civil society and other NGOs as observers.

Seven people killed in private bus accidents in two weeks. An old woman crossing the road at Delkanda is knocked down by a private bus. Two small, motherless girls returning home with bread from the nearby boutique are run over by a private bus in Wariyapola. A middle-aged woman taking her daughter for classes is crushed by a private bus at the Nugegoda Junction. The list goes on and on.

Driver Sirimal

The accidents are heart-rending but an unemotional check of the statistics shows no major change in the number of road mishaps within the past five years. Figures reveal that a person is killed every day by a private bus.

Accidents are bad enough but a terrifying dimension has now crept in to make matters worse. The chilling aftermath of mob violence, on a scale never seen before.

"I didn't run over the old woman. I stopped the bus but it just struck her and she got thrown. I also didn't run away but got down to help her immediately, but see what happened to me," says Sirimal Wijeratne touching his face gingerly to indicate swellings.

Sirimal, 42, who was in the Kalubowila Hospital when we met him, was the driver of the private bus which was involved in the accident in which the old woman died on Poson night at Delkanda. That night he was driving a 43-seater. It was his sixth and final run from Kottawa to Colombo and the bus was full, with around 10 passengers standing.

A driver for 22 years, he claims he has never even had a minor accident before this. "It was poya night and there were few buses on the road. As I was taking the incline close to the pola, there was a perahera on one side and two or three women with small children attempting to cross the road recklessly. I tooted the horn, braked and asked them whether they were trying to put us into trouble. I was on first gear and just changed into second and had hardly any time to pick up when an achchi jumped onto the road. I stepped on the brake, but she got pushed and fell in front of the bus. If I was speeding I would have run over her."

He then did what any human being should do. "I wanted to help her. She was alive when I got to her." But things happened quickly, with about 20-30 people, mostly men gathering around him. The blows rained down. He heard shouts of "Umbala thama me vidiyata mini maranne" (This is how you murder people). He woke up later in hospital to hear that "bus eka kudu karala" (Bus had been smashed).

How is it that a gentle and tolerant people, who usually will not harm a fly suddenly change face and become stone and stick wielding rioters?

"It happens when there is a feeling of inadequacy. The law doesn't function effectively. People feel there is no immediate and proper punishment of culprits, be it an accident, a rape or any other crime. Another factor has been a lot of interference, mainly political and also from the higher social and economic circles," explains well-known sociologist Professor Nandasena Ratnapala.

A crucial thing has also been that people are not educated enough, to be socially controlled, he stresses, adding that those days the learning process came from the family, school and religion. "Now these systems have broken down."

Chiding the media, especially the electronic media, Prof. Ratnapala charges that sometimes they bring non-essentials into focus. This has a bad impact on people particularly children. "Violence, crime are the main focus. Guns and blood. In an accident if they extol how people acted and what motivated them to do so in one place, people react the same way in another place."

How true the copy-cat syndrome rings. For the Nugegoda spree of violence, where 27 buses were badly damaged was soon followed by young students in Galle.

"This trend of mob violence is only within town limits," says Gemunu Wijeratne, President of the Lanka Private Bus Owners' Association. Why? Mostly because many people gather in towns and one can also see the hand of students behind it. He recalls that earlier there have been only two incidents near the Colombo and Kelaniya campuses where buses were burnt when two students were run over.

Mr. Wijeratne also blames the authorities for rousing public hostility against the private bus service. "In the recent tussle between the authorities and the private bus owners, they highlighted only the fact that we wanted to increase bus fares and the media too got on the bandwagon. When raw materials go up in price, doesn't the price of the product also go up?" he asks, stating that no one talks of the rise in diesel prices. The bus owners wanted a national policy and set a deadline. The demand was that if it was not brought in, bus fares would be increased by 30%. But the authorities painted them as 'Shylocks' and got passenger organizations to question them strongly. "The people got angry with us," he says.

Do you know that there are 50% more buses than required in the Western Province? We are doing a service but at the same time the bus industry has to put up a real fight to survive. We too need to live, Mr. Wijeratne says.

However, Prof. Ratnapala holds the view that all segments of society have to share the blame.

"What should happen is the law must take its course. But take for example, the case of an assault on a bus crew member. Without letting the police handle the issue, the buses people go on strike. Even doctors do the same. People feel the law is not working."

He sees four causes for accidents - lack of trained bus drivers; lack of social training for bus drivers, like how to handle people; inadequate punishment for offences and the public not being educated on road safety and rules.

"Police records indicate that in 1996 there were 140,000 who drove vehicles without licences.

"What is required is for the police to take the vehicle of such errant drivers and not release it. With regard to social training for bus drivers, they need to be given at least a week's training, ideally three months before a bus is handed over to them. Punishment for errant drivers should be more stringent and even caning in public should be introduced," he says.

The Police, however, stress that they are doing their job well, but there are many incompetent drivers on the road. "The law is weak and needs to be strengthened," says Director of Traffic SSP S.M. Wickremasinghe. The finest examples are the spot fines for errant driving which do not exceed a low Rs. 200. "Driving without a licence gets only Rs. 150; for under-age driving it is Rs. 150 and for dangerous, parallel driving or wrong overtaking it is only Rs. 100."

If you take a random sample most of them are driving with temporary permits. Last year of the over one million (1,040,000) traffic offence charges, 140,000 were against private buses, he said, questioning the competency of drivers coming through driving schools.

Many things need to be done while the Police are doing their job.

"Even pedestrians are indisciplined on the road. There is a need to recheck driver competency. What we need is a national level strategy," he added.

Whatever the reasons, mob violence has raised its ugly head. Will we come to a stage when like in America during the time of the slaves the blacks were considered guilty of all heinous crimes, irrespective of whether there was evidence or not and the chant was: lynch them, hang them?

In this country where any person is deemed innocent until proven guilty, should we allow summary justice to be the order of the day? Where are the voices of reason and the rights activists? Why is civil society silent?

Passing through Nugegoda soon after the mob had been brought under control, one could see the hate and pent- up hostility of the youth crowding the junction. The system should immediately be put right before it spills into all spheres of life sending a clear message that Nugegoda and Galle should never be repeated again.

Otherwise, as driver Sirimal said nursing his injuries, "Api asarana wuna", the country too would gradually sink into anarchy. Let justice prevail through the courts of law and not the kangaroo courts manned by mobs.

Enforce the law
"We have strengthened road surveillance, by sending special teams from headquarters in addition to the traffic policemen already deployed," says DIG Traffic Daya Jayasundera.

He attributes mob violence to the indiscipline of everyone, not only the drivers but also pedestrians. "In every accident the driver is not at fault. All parties must be checked. The police should enforce the law, politicians shouldn't interfere. We need to recommend, within the existing law to suspend the driving licences of bad drivers pending investigation."

Police are also educating the drivers and the public including schoolchildren on road safety and policemen in mufti are being deployed to spot errant drivers, he said.

Meanwhile, Motor Traffic Commissioner E. Jinadasa says a thousand people apply for driving licences each day and about 750 who have the basic competency are granted licences. The annual tally works out to about 180,000 new licences. Forty percent of these are for heavy vehicles. "We look for the usual requirements, but we cannot make professional drivers. People become professional drivers only after gaining four or five years of experience."

He gives a word of advice to the Private Bus Owners' Association. "Check the validity of the driving licence of the person whom you are employing and then like in the security forces give them some training in handling heavy vehicles before putting them in charge of people's lives."

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