Recipe for accidents: Too many vehicles, too little public awareness
Too many vehicles on our roads--1, 400 cars, vans, three- wheelers and motorcycles being registered on average every day and too many people on the roads; more than 1.8 million people entering Colombo city daily on working days.
A deadly concoction say experts adding that this is one of the reasons for the number of traffic accidents to escalate with more than 3,000 fatalities reported last year.
“If we want to move towards a zero-accident strategy, we must aim to improve road safety through four cornerstones: safe road use; safe roads and roadsides; safe speeds; and safe vehicles," says Prof. Amal Kumarage, the country’s foremost expert in transport logistics and road management,.
“If all these cornerstones are fully implemented we will have the potential to save people from being killed or seriously injured by about per cent on a daily basis," he said.
He also made the observation that obtaining a driving licence should be made tougher like in other countries and the applicants’ knowledge of traffic rules and skills should be thoroughly examined before a licence is issued.
Automobile Association Ceylon ( AAC), secretary Dewapriya Hettiarachchi giving his views on how to curb the number of accidents said when licences are issued they should be made valid for only three years. He suggested driver education classes be conducted when the initial licence is issued, and subsequent classes be conducted when licences are renewed in three years time
Stressing the importance of starting traffic safety education at a young age he said it should be introduced in schools.
Public organisations too should conduct traffic safety education programmes at the regional level; especially among drivers of three-wheelers, buses and vans.
Traffic Deputy Inspector General ( DIG) Palitha Fernando opined that the blame cannot be squarely put on motorists alone, pedestrians too are sometimes at fault. Some pedestrians do not observe road rules especially at pedestrian crossings. However, at the same time there are many instances where accidents take place at pedestrian crossings mainly due to disregard of rules by motorists.
He pointed out that, the unnecessary use of high powered headlamps at night time has also caused many accidents. “When such headlamps are on, they can momentarily blind motorists coming from the opposite direction, which could lead to serious sometimes even fatal accidents," he observed.
He also pointed out that some drivers who are not qualified to hold driving licences obtain them through illegal means. This is also a contributory factor to road accidents. He said in some instances they have been able to apprehend such culprits and prosecute them in courts thereby controlling these illegal activities to some extent.