Killers on the road

Hardly a day passes without a road accident hitting the headlines in the press, so much so it is now almost routine. The public outcry at the loss of life and limb too dissipates in no time after the initial shock and horror.

In the days gone by a fatal accident attracted the same attention as a rare murder which formed the main topic of discussions at the village spout as well in the high echelons of society. Perhaps the brutalization of present society by three decades of war had resigned the public to all forms of killings - including killings on the highways.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa has declared war on several fronts with the end to terrorism in the country. He has declared war on drugs, alcohol, waste, bribery, corruption, crime and the underworld. It would be ideal if highway killings too are added to this list given the monotonous regularity in which lives are claimed on the highways by speed fiends.

On Wednesday we front paged a news of a serious road accident where 44 persons including several school children were injured, nine of them critically. The school children were on a trip when their school bus collided with an oncoming bus near Pasyala. According to Police Spokesman SSP Rajith Gunasekera the accident occurred due to negligence of both drivers.

This type of incident today renders it unsafe to use public transport. For, there is no knowing whether you will come home in one piece or worse. Another front page report on the same day states that as much as 10 fatal accidents had taken place in the Horana- Panadura area during the past few months. All this goes to show the state of affairs on the public highways.

True, with the increase in the volume of traffic, there is a tendency for more smash-ups than in the past. But not all the mishaps occur due to the heavy traffic press alone. In most instances as in the case of the Pasyala incident, it is the men behind the wheels who are to blame. Frequent also are the instances where drivers involved in fatal accidents were found to be under the influence of liquor.

It has also been found in a majority of cases that drivers involved in serious road accidents were without a valid licence and others with barely a nodding acquaintance with the job of driving.

None of these men had taken driving lessons from established Driving Schools but taught to hold a steering wheel and go through the motions by others with no knowledge of road rules or the Highway code.

This is a far cry from the days of the former CTB where drivers were put through a rigorous training and licences were hard earned.

We say this because today a majority of the road accidents are caused by private buses with demons behind the wheels. Driven by the profit motive they are a law unto themselves careening along the highways in a mad scramble to pick up passengers. In this exercise they have to outdo their rivals for once the day's collection target is reached the rest is theirs for the taking.

Hence the drag races one sees on the highways today with drivers trying to overtake each other in the cut throat competition to outdo the other, typical of the present day rat race. This more often than not ends in disaster with loss of life and limb. The Police not surprisingly turn a blind eye to this 'death dance' played on the highways since it is a well-known fact that some of these private buses are operated by the khakied gentry. Besides most of these private buses are un-roadworthy which also lends itself to accidents and mishaps not to mention air pollution.

Time and again there have been methods suggested to discipline private bus crew and rein in their uncouth conduct. But regrettably these have only remained suggestions. As a result they carry on with impunity cocking a snook at the law while gobbling the lives of innocents while on their merry way. Whatever happened to the compulsory Uniforms for private bus crew and mandatory use of ticket machines. It is nearly a year since the Supreme Court made this ruling. Aren't the authorities acting in contempt? The Government has successfully dealt a ruthless killer machine. It is now up to it to come down hard on other killer agencies who use different means to snuff out the lives of people.

The Government has done exceptionally well to curb the alcohol menace which was dealing a slow death on the people. It is also going all out to pull down all the death dealing underworld empires. It should now turn it's serious attention to confront those killers on the highways who has been having a free run all this time.