Strategies for a safer road environment - Part II:

Effective traffic management pivotal

Camillus R Abeygoonewardena
Former Deputy Inspector General of Police
(Traffic Administration and Road Safety)

Mobility is a basic human need. Therefore, the right to safety in mobility should be embodied or enshrined by the state as a fundamental human right, as a logical extension of Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Part I of this article was published yesterday

The next category of victims is pedal cyclists who contribute to nine to 10 percent of fatalities. A decade ago this category contributed to a higher percentage of fatalities. The drop in being involved to a lesser degree is certainly not due to safe riding but due to most of them changing over to faster and riskier modes such as motorcycles and Mopeds. Motorcyclists, pedestrians and pedal cyclists together comprise the vulnerable category of road users in our country. They will continue to remain to be vulnerable so long as their safety requirements are not adequately addressed by the relevant authorities. Together, these three categories namely motorcyclists, pedal cyclists and pedestrians account for approximately 70 percent of road fatalities according to last year’s statistics.

Who kills? Who is more involved in causing fatalities?

To arrive at a logical conclusion on involvement, one must consider the distances travelled and the number of vehicles in each category in operation rather than the number involved in fatalities. Because it could be argued that there are more cars than buses. On the other hand, if the number of buses and cars are the same, by reason of the fact that buses travel more than a car in a year and it is larger in size, it may be more exposed to fatalities or accidents. Hence, vehicle kilometres travelled by each category and the operational fleet is the most accurate measurement to determine the ranking of most dangerous category.

Road accidents, heavy burden to state

Statistically, the most involved categories in road fatalities 2010 were motorcyclists 722, buses 392, three wheelers 227, vans 212, cars 157, dual purpose vehicles 122, pedal cycles 59, tractors 52, jeeps 43, containers 27, land vehicles 9, hit and run 89.

Comparison of 2009 fatalities does not make any significant difference with 2010.

Motorcycle riders had been the most involved in fatal accidents based on statistics. A prime reason for their high rate of involvement is they form more than 50 percent of the total vehicle fleet in Sri Lanka, because of its affordability.

This category will continue to dominate the vehicle scene in the years to come and will also continue to cause the most fatalities. Another prime reason for their high involvement in fatalities is their rash riding manoeuvres at high speeds with little experience and inadequate training and testing procedures. Further, this category being small in appearance are not easily identified by other users of the road.

The next highest category involved in road fatalities are buses, lorries, three wheelers and vans. Although the categories mentioned above are more involved in road fatalities, it does not necessarily mean that all of them were singularly at fault in all instances. Police investigations have concluded that the fault in certain instances had been more due to other factors or fault of other users.

If fatalities are calculated by the operational fleet and vehicle km driven, the ranking of the most dangerous category could drastically change. Studies done by the Moratuwa University in early 2000 revealed that on this basis private bus drivers, lorry drivers and SLTB drivers ranked as the most dangerous category. If we are to avert buses being the most dangerous, it is desirable to eliminate the present competitiveness amongst them.

Provinces where road accidents occur most

Statistically, the province that has reported the highest number of accidents is the Western Province with its intensity of traffic and numerous conflicts that prevail on these roads among different users. Other factors that would contribute are the main trunk roads from Colombo to other provincial capitals radiate through this province and the structure and capacity of these roads not being adequate to meet demands. The inadequate level of law enforcement, delays caused by congestion in town areas and the culture of road and driving habits have compounded this further.

The other vulnerable provinces are Southern, North Western, Sabaragamuwa, Central and North Central. Here again the main reason for the high rate of accidents is that all major trunk roads A1 to A6 run through these provinces. The other contributory factors are the state of the road, intensity of traffic, level of traffic enforcement and driving standards and habits of users.

Week end road accidents

Since 2009 the demand for travel within the country has rapidly increased more so on week ends resulting in a change in the accident pattern and fatality rates. In 2010 the highest number of fatal accidents had occurred on Sundays (409) with Fridays (372) incurring the next highest, Saturdays proportionately with lesser travel demand remains significantly high (344).

On other weekdays Tuesdays have caused the highest number of fatal accidents (365) and on other week days it remains marginally less.

In the years gone by Police were more vigilant during week days as accident trends and travel pattern were much more different. Based on today’s traffic fatalities, accidents and travel pattern it is imperative that Police vigilance and enforcement strategies must be spread out during the entire week with out any relaxation what so ever.

Special enforcement programmes must be implemented from Fridays to Mondays to minimize or contain the present trends and to assure the motoring public safe travel on roads by effective presence and patrolling especially on main trunk roads A1 to A6 leading to and from Colombo.

To afford safe and convenient travel to the public, Police must also ensure that ad-hoc parking of motor vehicles are avoided on main trunk roads to optimize road space and facilitate orderly traffic movement.

Road authorities must provide off street parking facilities even by leasing private land by road sides to take congestion off the road. To minimize existing conflicts and delays all major/minor junctions in urban towns on A1 to A5 roads needs to be regulated when travel demands are high. This would reduce journey time on long distance travel considerably.

Traffic violations

Visible Police presence must be ensured at strategic locations throughout to deter traffic violations.

Effective patrolling in marked and unmarked Police vehicles must be introduced to create an awareness or a perception of Police vigilance both by day and night. For this purpose staffing through a shift system must be introduced in high risk areas in all Police divisions.

At the same time emergency vehicles such as ambulances with para medics, photographers, technical staff and tow trucks must be located to rush to serious accident scenes, this could also minimize traffic hold ups due to such situations and to provide road side medical care which is vital and neglected in Sri Lanka.