Road deaths: Who's to blame?

The article alongside this editorial on road accidents by the president of CESPA ( Ceylon Association for Prevention of Accidents), Mr. Noel Barsenbach, echoes the many editorials we have written on the chaos and carnage on the highways and the failure of the traffic police to take corrective measures. Since the comments made in the article come from the president of a long standing organisation dedicated to prevent accidents, we hope that this would make the inspector general of police and also President Kumaratunga, who is the head of the police force, as well , to take measures to prevent innocents being killed on our highways.

According to statistics produced by Mr. Barsenbach, for one year 41, 265 accidents were reported resulting in the deaths of 1492 people. This amounts to 113 accidents per day and four people per day being killed on our highways. The statistics that are being quoted are only for 1993 and tens of thousands of vehicles have entered our roads during the past five years. Thus, the number of accidents per year and fatal deaths should be much more than for the year 1993.

The traffic police Mr. Barsenbach points out' has for a long period not been given the consideration it deserves although there are compelling reasons for enhancement'. If the government has not been giving the traffic police adequate resources to carry on their functions while permitting the large scale influx of imports of motor vehicles, then the government should also be held responsible for the deaths and those maimed on the roads. Either through neglect or lack of resources, we find that even pedestrian crossings are not visible and the paint washed off. Perhaps in some instances its not the traffic police but the municipal council that is to blame. On most busy roads the pedestrian crossings fade away within a few days of them being painted but motorists as well as pedestrians are being blamed. Nor are these crossings lit at night. A drive down the heavily clogged Galle Road after dark past Dehiwela Bridge will reveal today that these crossings are visible to motorists only when they are a few feet away. But knocking down a pedestrian at such a crossing is a heinous crime.

We are not aware of the exact requirements of manpower of the traffic police, particularly in Colombo and the suburbs, but many of them are visible on the roads although most of them seem to be standing by, idling on pavements. There is very little that a traffic policeman by himself on a pavement can do with a heavily overloaded bus with its footboard scraping the road careering madly through heavy traffic. Mobile traffic policemen detecting offenders appear to be a thing of the past. Traffic policemen are highly visible on their motor bicycles but they seem to be engaged in other duties such as dropping and picking up their children from school. Abuse of state vehicles by officials is now taken for granted by all government departments.

We have said it before and it has to be reiterated that traffic policemen and their bosses need to be sent back to the police training school. Minor offences such as jumping a traffic light by a mere fraction of a second or riding without a helmut are the most serious of offences considered by traffic policemen who hide behind lamp posts and electric transformers on pavements, waiting for a prey. The maniacs on the roads - killer bus drivers who occasionally have their buses set ablaze by the irate public, stupid louts racing on three-wheelers causing panic to decent motorists and pedestrians - do not appear to be the concern of traffic policemen.

Another sad, and regrettable new feature on the roads is the arrogance with which military vehicles are being driven. These service drivers appear to be immune from the law and do not give two hoots about traffic laws, law abiding motorists and pedestrians or even the traffic cops. Quite often in the backseats of these vehicles are the 'officers and gentlemen' of our services who disgrace their uniforms by permitting their official vehicles to be driven in such rash and negligent manner. The supreme irony of it all is the traffic cops crashing salutes on these ' officers and gentlemen 'who aid and abet violation of the law of the land. When the high and mighty break such laws before the eyes of ignorant bus drivers and three-wheel drivers, it is natural that they feel that laws, if they exist, are meant to be broken.

CESPA says: 'Accidents are caused, they don't just happen'. Let it be realised that the traffic police by their lackadaisical attitude are also contributing to these accidents.