SLMA urges government to focus on preventing road accidents

At least seven persons were killed when a bus collided with a van while speeding along the Radella-Nanu Oya route recently

The recent Radella-Nanu Oya bus tragedy took away the lives of seven people. The Passara bus accident that happened in 2021 claimed the lives of 15 people. Statistics indicate that road accidents claim the lives of at least eight persons daily and road accidents are therefore categorized as a non-communicable disease in Sri Lanka. Experts believe that the country could retain a lot of rupees and dollars if road accidents are prevented. Another concern is with regards to driving schools as it is observed that the lack of education on road discipline is one of the main reasons for accidents to occur.

 Preventing accidents, a collective effort

Road accidents take away the lives of at least eight persons daily. More people sustain injuries and are hospitalized as well. “Accidents and injuries top the list of reasons for people to be hospitalized,” said Sri Lanka Medical Association President Dr. Vinya Ariyaratne during a press conference to highlight the responsibilities of the health sector and various other stakeholders to prevent road accidents in 2023 and beyond. “As such the socio-economic impact of road accidents on the lives of people and their families should be considered. A majority of youth, between the ages 15-29 become victims of road accidents. In 2022, despite travel restrictions due to the economic crisis, 2,361 road accidents were reported while 2,475 deaths were recorded. Perhaps people could be meeting with accidents due to mental stress as a result of socio-economic reasons. There are 23 expert committees at SLMA and one of them is the Committee on Prevention of Road Traffic Crashes. Our objective is to reduce the number of road accidents taking place this year. But this cannot be done by the health sector alone. Health officials can only attempt to prevent a death once a person is admitted to hospital. The number of people dying after being hospitalised is quite low and this shows that they are being provided with an efficient ambulatory curative service. But we should give priority to prevent road accidents from occurring. As such, various stakeholders should join hands in this endeavour,” he added.

Why road accidents should be prevented

Even though successive governments, subject ministries and departments attempted to prevent road accidents every year, there’s an exponential increase in the number of accidents. A lot of funds are also being spent to minimize road accidents, but the issue has not yet been resolved. “Road accidents have occurred in the midst of many other major natural and manmade disasters Sri Lanka experienced, including the civil war, COVID, dengue etc.,” said Prof. Samath Dharmaratne, former SLMA President.

By minimizing road accidents Sri Lanka can retain rupees and dollars in the country. The other being saving space in hospitals. “If someone is injured in a road accident, he should be admitted to hospital immediately. If a treatment or surgery is required the hospital staff should attend to it. That means the patient should be given a bed and the required treatments. If road accidents are minimized doctors and nurses can save a lot of their time as well. Apart from deaths, many others are injured during road accidents and around one-third of them become permanently disabled. A majority of youth fall prey to road accidents and if they become permanently disabled or die, it is an irreversible loss to the nation.

Prof. Dharmaratne further said that it costs a lot of dollars to bring down spare parts. “It is not only people who are injured during accidents but vehicles too are damaged. But if accidents are minimized we can save some dollars as well. A reduction in road accidents will also help boost tourism as it would make tourists feel that they are safe when travelling around the country.”

The lack of a collective effort by respective stakeholders to provide remedial action is seen as one reason why the frequency of road accidents have not at least been reduced. “Even though various ministries and departments have their own responsibilities, the same job is being duplicated and most tasks are not being done due to lack of communication,” claimed Prof. Dharmaratne. “Most ministries are ready to show the number of programmes they have conducted to raise awareness among the public and so on. But the frequency of road accidents hasn’t reduced. Therefore, our main request is to establish a Presidential Task Force to put a stop to road accidents.”

The role of driving schools and the government

The lack of basic education on road discipline is seen as one of the main reasons road accidents occur. “Time is the most important aspect of our life and people need freedom the most. But most drivers in Sri Lanka have deprived citizens of both these aspects,” said Safe Sri Lanka Brand Ambassador Dilantha Malagamuwa. “I came to Sri Lanka in 2017 and what I saw was that the number of road accidents escalated by the day, while drivers’ discipline declined. Bus drivers in particular have deprived people of their freedom.”

Malagamuwa said that he opposes driving schools as they don’t teach the basics. “As a vehicle becomes heavier, the efficiency of brakes becomes less. Therefore if someone driving a car needs to stop, they have to apply brakes at a distance of 100 meters while a bus has to apply brakes at 150 metres. But they apply brakes at 80 metres and therefore an accident is likely to happen. As such this process needs to begin from driving schools. In other countries, there are simulators and fully equipped driving schools. I suggest that every driving school in Sri Lanka should have a simulator. Otherwise, we cannot even think of reducing the number of accidents happening in the country. In the short term, we could prevent road accidents by enforcing stricter laws and this has to be done by the government. For over five years we have been calling upon successive governments to enforce stricter laws but in response, we are being told that it is a difficult task. However, this is not true.”

He said that he met with MPs Pramitha Bandara Tennakoon and Lasantha Alagiyawanna and that they asked him to provide them with a solution and that they would execute it. “During an accident there are exchanges of verbal abuse, sometimes even in front of children. Therefore laws can be brought about to prevent people from using verbal slander and to increase fines. I proposed to the National Transport Commission that I will volunteer to train bus drivers. Likewise, we can volunteer to share our knowledge with stakeholders and particularly, drivers. We have seen bus drivers driving without proper discipline; they may block a lane from the right or left and this happens when they get a license without proper education. Therefore I believe that the entire citizenry should raise their voices against this matter because you can’t assure whether your child would return home safely from school,” Malagamuwa underscored.