If policemen did their duty road accidents would be less

Road accidents in Sri Lanka are increasing year by year, resulting in deaths, injuries, serious injuries and permanent disability. The reason for this, as the experts would say are many:

Badly designed roads, too many vehicles on the road, vehicles being driven after the consumption of liquor or drugs, incompetent drivers, unroadworthy vehicles etc. etc.

When accidents happen, police quote the above reasons and conveniently absolve themselves of all blame. I believe that Police must take part of the blame due to the following reason:

I am a daily traveller from Wattala to Negombo and back. I use public and private buses. I see private buses speeding over the stipulated limit and racing each other in order to collect pas- sengers or to get to their destination on time. They zig zag and stop on zebra crossings to drop or pickup passengers, and violate other road rules. I see three wheelers violating all road rules. Yet I never see traffic police on this stretch of road waiting to apprehend drivers breaking the law. I have never seen a traffic police car going around checking on the road users. I am sure these violations are happening on every road around Sri Lanka.

The drivers know this so they take the law into their own hands. The result is the increase in road accidents. Considering the above the Police must share the blame for the increase in road accidents.

P.D. Costa Wattala