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by Geoff Wijesinghe

Deaths and accidents at pedestrian crossings have been on the rise throughout the country and today, it is worse than ever before.

Hundreds of members of the public, many of them schoolchildren, have either lost life or limb or have been mentally incapacitated due to the impacts caused by their being hit by vehicles.

In more developed countries in the West, where it is the norm and even in the Far East such as Japan, Singapore and Korea, there are traffic lights at pedestrian crossings. The authorities are very stringent about implementing the regulations concerning traffic lights at pedestrian crossings and a pedestrian trying to cross the road where there is no crossing or when the signals are red are totally at fault and have no legal recourse. The traffic arrangements are so well organized that the movement of vehicles is quite speedy. There is hardly any let or hindrance to either the pedestrian or the motorist.

In Sri Lanka, pedestrian crossings were introduced comparatively late. Initially, they were zebra crossings, with yellow stripes across the passage cleared for pedestrians. Since we could not afford traffic lights there were only a few installed at junctions.

As time progressed, motorists who were compelled to stop at pedestrian crossings were usually supervised by police constables, particularly police women, where they stood on the centre of the road, stopped traffic and ensured free passage to pedestrians.

There were pedestrian crossings at almost opposite every school, particularly in the city and the suburbs. There were also signboards, some of which still exist, warning motorists ahead of the pedestrian crossings. As time went on, and the local authorities, including the municipalities concerned themselves more with political infighting than protecting the lives of the citizens, most pedestrian crossings were even minus their yellow lines, leave along the zebra crossings.

From time to time, after much public agitation, the yellow lines emerged at some points. But, they were mostly ignored in the breach.

Meanwhile, motorists preferred to ignore the pedestrian crossings, and very often one found the vehicles particularly buses, accelerating when approaching the crossings in order to intimidate the pedestrians. There was a time when schoolchildren before and after school hours were used as traffic wardens, carrying boards above their heads, in order to permit schoolchildren to cross the road. As in the case of all good things, this practice did not last for very long.

Then, there were also humps across the highways to prevent vehicles, particularly wayward private buses, being driven at reckless speed, with nary a care for other road users. As I remember, the first such humps were constructed across Thurstan Road and Reid Avenue in front of the University of Colombo. This was a direct result of a female undergraduate being run over and killed by a private bus, and where the students rioted, the bus being reduced to a shell.

But, for these official aberrations, caused by public pressure in the main, there are no pedestrian crossings. While in Colombo, most of them remain, but are unmanned by either the police or any other authority, in the outstations, except for the principal towns and cities, they are non-existent, and the poor citizen Perera and his family are left to the vagaries of the man at the wheel of a vehicle, whether he be drunk with liquor or inebriated with the power of the throttle of the accelerator at his command where he has the power to take or main a life.

I well remember the case where a schoolgirl, on seeing an old woman using the pedestrian crossing opposite the Odeon Cinama at Mount Lavinia, held her by the hand and was guiding her across to the other side of the road, when a three-wheeler rammed into them from the blind side and both were killed. There was also the case of a schoolgirl of Lindsay Girls' School at the Bambalapitiya Junction, being knocked down and killed by an errant motorist.

I had a journalist friend who was a very careful person. Having cashed a cheque at his bank at the Bambalapitiya Junction, he was using the pedestrian crossing opposite Lindsay Girls' School when he was knocked down and killed.

There is not a day, which passes without a vehicle causing a death on the roads. They are too numerous to mention, but two which I well remember are the ones where two schoolgirls were knocked down and killed by a CTB while using the pedestrian crossing opposite their school a few miles away from Colombo, while a tourist bus driver still inebriated by the previous night's roistering, drove several to their deaths.

Another case that comes to mind is that of retired Senior Superintendent of Police Ebert Egodapitiya, who was at one time officer-in-charge of the Fort and Maradana Police Stations. Now aged 78, he was returning from his daily evening custom of praying at St. Mary's Church at Lauries Road, Bambalapitiya. A car ignored the red traffic light at the Duplication Road-Bauddhaloka Mawatha intersection, and knocked him down.

The driver happened to be a doctor and wanted to take my friend who lives in School Lane to the Accident Service as he was evidently in great pain, and it was later found, he had a hairline fracture on his thighbone. But, the former police officer insisted that he be dropped at home, as he was of the view that since there were no witnesses to the accident, he would be just wasting his time at police stations and courthouses.

"Ego", who related this incident to me, said that although he lived alone, he kept praying for his healing. His daily meals were brought from his daughter's. Two weeks later, the parish priest of St. Mary's paid him a visit to inquire as to why he had not come to church for the past few weeks. He then told him what happened, but insisted that his prayers would be answered and that he would be back in church the next Sunday. And he was proved right.

To my mind, since the police claimed that there is an acute shortage of personnel, why are not traffic wardens employed at all level crossings? Females are ideal for the job, as you can imagine, they are quite strict. There should be legislation to give teeth to their decisions, and they must be paid a decent salary.

Sometime ago, if I remember right, President Premadasa introduced a system of traffic wardens armed with ticket books and clad in green to charge fees and help motorists in parking. But, except for a few, who can be seen around, the whole scheme had flopped due to official apathy, largely there is no proper supervision and the welfare of traffic wardens are not looked after.

They work from day to late in the evening, but receive a mere pittance, according to my information. The solution to this burgeoning problem is to have well-equipped traffic wardens, and yellow flags, as suggested by the police, who are well-known to for trying to pass the buck.

Two other problem is the heavy congestion on the roads leading out of Colombo and this could well be solved by the Marine Drive, which now goes up to somewhere near the Dehiwela Bridge and Duplication Road which ends up near the Wellawatta Bridge.

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