Errant motorists to pay victims' medical bills
Nadira Gunatilleke
The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry will formulate a system that
enables the Ministry to charge the entire medical cost of road accident
victims from those responsible for causing the relevant accident. The
Ministry at present spends around Rs. 10 million to treat one road
accident victim if he or she is being treated in the ICU for over one
month, a Ministry spokesman said.
|
Killer roads |
| * The total
number of people who died in road accidents was greater than the
number killed by the LTTE annually during the past years.
* Every four hours, one person
dies in Sri Lanka due to a road accident.
* Nearly 2,200 persons die in
accidents in Sri Lanka. Many accidents involve a fraudulent
driving license. |
According to the spokesman, the Ministry will formulate a system to
obtain police reports immediately.
Then track down the person who caused the road accident and charge
the entire medical cost from him or her.
Most of the time people who suffer from serious injuries during road
accidents die within few days even if they are treated in the IUC and
some others spend months in the ICU and come out as permanently disabled
persons. The Government spends between Rs. 5 and 10 million to cure a
serious accident victim.
Even when the Government spends a large amount of money and cure an
accident victim, he or she has to live with the assistance of others
there after becoming a burden to the economy. But the persons who cause
such situations get away with a small fine or they walk away without any
trouble. This situation encourage careless drivers to be more reckless.
Once the ministry formulates the charging system, the drivers will be
more careful because they have to pay the entire medical cost for the
accident victims, the spokesman said.
One example is where a road accident occurred at Yaangalmodara when a
passenger bus colided with a train.
The bus driver who caused the accident and killed 30 people and
injured 60 walked away without trouble because he claimed that he could
not control the bus.
Most drivers give similar excuses which may be acceptable. But the
ministry spends a large amount of money to treat the injured persons. |
