Drive away the Road Terror

ROAD SAFETY: It is a well-known fact that our roads have become increasingly unsafe over the years and it is a pity that no serious attempt has yet being made to correct this trend. Last year, 2,065 people were killed in road accidents in Sri Lanka. According to police, the number of accidents has increased in recent months despite a hike in penalties for traffic offences.

Prof. Amal Kumarage's book titled "Analysis of road accidents in Sri Lanka" sums up the pathetic situation as follows: "Statistically there are over a thousand road accidents recorded per week with five to six people being killed every day.

This means about 2000 people are killed yearly while 3,000 are critically injured and another 12,000 suffer minor injuries. This means one in 250 families suffers personal injury or death due to a road accident every year".

The estimated cost of road trauma is estimated around 2 percent of our GNP. This is a massive amount. This cost has not taken into consideration the grief and pain borne by families and loved ones of the victims.

So what does the future hold, with the ever-growing motor vehicles due to hit Sri Lanka's overstretched road network?

A private study done by an NGO a few months ago discovered that, to most drivers, pedestrians and traffic policemen, some causes directly leading to traffic accidents are perceivable and can be prevented. In addition, useful precautions like well-designed roads, proper arrangement of traffic signs, strict enforcement of traffic laws and more respect for traffic regulations might effectively stop traffic accidents.

Although the people are a little bit contented with the precautionary measures by the traffic policemen, a significant number of them are not well satisfied with traffic policemen's skill, medical care at the time of accidents, accidents' investigation and the overall efficiency of crisis management of traffic accidents.

In whatever angle we look at it, serious accidents occurring on road are a matter of great concern for all of us. The number of motor vehicles is increasing day by day.

Though it is a sign of improving economy of the country, it also means more accidents on roads. Our inability to provide enough funds to widen the roads or to construct new roads in proportion to rise in vehicle population also results in perpetuating this state of affairs.

Why do accidents occur? Experts say that accidents occur due to four reasons:

1) Defects in vehicle (e.g. breakage of tie rod of a running vehicle, tyre bursting, wheel coming loose or failure of brakes). Due to such occurrence the driver loses control on the vehicle and an accident results.

2) Error of driver (e.g. overtaking at a wrong place, turning abruptly or stopping without prior signalling, which can cause collision with the vehicle following; driving fast through villages exceeding the speed limit; falling asleep at the wheel, overturning due to going round a curve at excessive speed, driving while intoxicated etc.),

3) Environment around the road (e.g. error of drivers of other vehicles like cycles, trishaws, jay walking, pedestrians, school children, cattle or dogs etc. running onto roads).

4) Defects in roads: A study of accidents registered with the police shows that the number of accidents due to this reason is around 20% of total accidents.

I recently spoke to a retired Senior Police Officer on this subject. "It was a little ironic as the overall number of vehicles in Sri Lanka is far smaller than that in Western countries, while the death rate from road accidents is much higher," he said.

According to him, the most important factor is still the negligence of drivers. He believes that the punishment for negligent drivers is still too lenient due to a failure of the relevant laws to catch up with current conditions.

The relatively low speed in road construction compared with the rapid increase in the number of motor vehicles is another reason given by him for the large number of accidents. "In a situation where most roads are still of low standard and lack necessary safety standards, it can be hard to keep the number of traffic accidents down," he added.

According to a WHO forecast, traffic accidents will rank as the third biggest cause of deaths by 2020. The road toll is now ranked in ninth position. Most of the deaths will occur in developing countries like Sri Lanka and although most of the people have to walk or use a bicycle or motorcycle because they cannot afford a private car, the increasingly busy roads will make them more vulnerable to death or injury.

On this background it is appropriate for the Government to appoint a high-powered Road Accident Prevention Commission with a view to at least reducing the accidents occurring in the roads by suggesting practical remedial measures.

Thus the roads in the country can be rendered safer to some extent and it can be expected that there will be reduction in the number of road accidents and good many lives would be saved.