Make road safety a priority

The statistics of serious road accidents in the country are alarming and have remained high over the past several years. In the first four months of the year, there were more than 700 fatalities due to road accidents with over 2,000 sustaining serious injuries and over 3,200 minor injuries.

Motorcyclists and pillion riders have been making up the highest number of fatalities while close to 200 dead were pedestrians. According to Sri Lanka Police statistics, seven to eight people die each day due to accidents.

Among many such tragedies reported last week was the death of three members of the same family, parents and 14-year-old son, when the three-wheeler they were travelling in crashed onto a tipper truck at Thulhiriya in the Colombo-Kurunegala main road. This is just one story, an all-too-common occurrence. The cause behind a majority of such deaths is speeding or drunk drivers, those using mobile phones while driving and those who have no regard for road rules.

Even on congested city roads, it is easy to see drivers who drive far above speed limits, cut across lanes, jump traffic lights and go about with scant regard to the fact that when seated behind the wheel they have a responsibility to drive in a way that other motorists, pedestrians and road users are not harmed.

According to the UN body on road safety, each year more than 1.3 million people die as a result of a road traffic crash and more than half of these people are vulnerable road users, mainly pedestrians, cyclists and motor cyclists. 90% of road traffic deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, which owns approximately 54% of the world’s vehicles.

Sri Lanka fits into this category of low-middle income country where, by the middle of 2022, there were over 8.3 million registered vehicles, a large percent of which are motorcycles and cars. People’s reliance on private vehicle ownership has to do with the poor public transport system in the country which has promoted anyone with the means to either buy a motorcycle, a three-wheeler or a car.

With no proper driving schools that emphasise the importance of road rules and by and large the lax attitude of the traffic police, the majority of drivers are a law unto themselves and the tragic results of this can be seen by the statistics of the number of deaths and injuries caused by ill-trained drivers who are either unaware of the massive responsibility that rests on their shoulder or don’t care for road rules.

Among the worst offenders are those driving Government-owned vehicles, who use this to bypass traffic rules and get away from the traffic Police. Bus drivers too are among those who have taken the law into their hands with no regard for either the passengers or for road users.

Sri Lanka has signed up to United Nations legal instruments aimed at harmonising traffic rules and implemented the necessary rules but on the roads, there is little visibility that road safety is getting the priority that it must get.

Even near schools, there are no proper pedestrian walkways nor road humps to discourage speeding drivers. The demerit system to cancel the licences of unruly drivers who are repeat offenders remains in limbo and the traffic police remains unevenly distributed, with a large number of personnel concentrated in a few areas while unruly drivers cause mayhem in most other areas.

The Transport Ministry needs to address the issue of road safety so that fatalities and serious accidents can be kept minimal. This requires more public awareness programs and discussions so that those who get behind a wheel learn the great responsibility that rests with them.