For safer roads

With road accidents on the rise as never before an interesting observation was made by President of the College of Medical Administration of Sri Lanka Dr Anil Jasinghe who stated that it was the poor - meaning those who do not possess vehicles - were the most vulnerable to road accidents as against vehicle occupants. Delivering the Presidential address of the 18th annual scientific sessions of the College of Medical Administrators of Sri Lanka he also said one out of every 50 deaths in Sri Lanka was due to road accidents.

The victims he said were invariably those of the lower strata, pedestrians who get knocked down. He said on average pedestrians suffer more severe injuries compared to vehicle occupants as a result of road traffic crashes. He thus called on those affluent and elite sections or more specifically vehicle owners 'to be mindful and go that extra mile to break the vicious circle'.

Obviously when Dr Jasinghe meant 'elite' he was speaking exclusively about domestic motor vehicle users the rich and the affluent. He has left out that segment of vehicle occupants who use the road even more dangerously and perilously than the other breed.

We are of course referring to the private buses which are chiefly responsible for all the chaos and mayhem on our roads.

The frequent occasions these private buses have been set on fire by the enraged public is a good indication that they are the number one killer on our roads. And as Dr Jasinghe asserts the victims are invariably the poor. Therefore more than generally classifying all vehicle owners as responsible for road mishaps it would have been appropriate to single out the private buses in this connection.

How frequently do we read of speeding private buses careening off the roads and crashing into wayside boutiques or plunging down some precipice with a full load of passengers? In a majority of such instances the man behind the wheel had been invariably found to be under the influence of liquor. Therefore the poor leading the list of road accident victims is not solely the result of domestic vehicle crashes as contended by Dr Jasinghe though they contribute their fare share to the piling up of list of victims due to negligent and reckless driving by their owners.

Public transport is the main culprit not just due to deaths caused by collisions or running over but also by other means. How many deaths and injuries occur due to passengers falling off footboards? They too constitute the poorer segments. It can therefore be said greed too plays a part for the increase in the number of deaths of the poor on our roads.

The speeding and overtaking by private buses in the cut-throat competition also results in death and injury. It is this category of vehicle occupant which should be focused on in the doctor's research.

What should be done is devise measures to protect all citizens and road users irrespective of their social strata. One of the primary causes of road accidents today is the large volume of vehicles on our roads now made worse by duty waivers granted for vehicle imports. Another reason is reckless driving and roads being used as racetracks by some. In this regard our Ministers and VIPs too are not without blame having played not an inconsiderable part in turning our roads into a new kind of killing field.

Hopefully the personal intervention to rein in the miscreants by the President would pay dividends, removing one huge threat to life and limb on our roads.

Another reason for the mounting incidents of road accidents is the incompetent drivers who are ignorant of the myriad signal forms and those who are medically unfit sitting behind the wheel.

There is therefore a need to carry out medical checks on drivers periodically to ensure they are in a stable position and hound out those who are not fit to take the wheel. Checks should also be carried out on all driving schools that have been mushrooming in recent times. Some of these driving schools have been found to issue competent certificates for a fee even though the subject had not qualified his/her driving tests.

All steps should be contemplated to minimise road accident because as Dr Jasinghe said it is also a heavy drain on the economy. He said the cost of road accidents in Sri Lanka in 2005 was Rs 14.17 billion which was about 15 percent of the total health budget of the same year. With deaths on the roads due to bombings now a thing of the past it is but incomprehensible to allow such deaths in this senseless fashion due to the reckless nature in some.