25 March 2019 03:28 pm
Fines for seven traffic offences are to be increased to Rs. 25,000 with the aim of reducing the number of deaths caused by road accidents, State Minister for Transport and Civil Aviation Ashok Abesinghe said today.
The proposal was brought forward once before, but only succeeded in increasing fines for several motor traffic offences by Rs, 3,000.
Speaking at the committee stage debate Abesinghe pointed out that there was a considerable decrease in road accidents when the proposal to increase fines to Rs. 25,000 was discussed previously. However, the situation returned to its previous state when the proposal was not implemented in its entirety.
“Eight individuals on average die because of road accidents each day in Sri Lanka. By increasing the fines for these seven offences we hope to reduce the number of accidents in the country,” he said.
The seven offences include drunk driving, driving without a valid license, reckless driving and driving through rail gates.(Ajith Siriwardana and Yohan Perera)