Road accidents claim 2,300 annually

Number one killer of young, bread winners:

Nethali Struys

Research on road accidents in Sri Lanka have shown that around 2,300 people die annually while another 25,000 people sustain non-fatal injuries, according to the 21st Parliamentary Internship Programme for Foreign Parliamentary Officials’ Assistant Principal Officer A M Nilamudeen.

It is reported that in the last 10 years 21,059 persons died due to traffic accidents while 750 died due to dengue fever.

Road accidents are a serious health and social economic problem in the country. Around 150 accidents are reported while five to six lives are lost on the road daily. It is found that one in 50 deaths in the country is due to road accidents, he said.

Nilamudeen said that traffic accidents cost billions of rupees for the country while taking away the productive human resource for the development of the country.

“It is the number one killer of young persons and bread winners of their families,” Nilamudeen said.