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| Sunday, 16 March 2003 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Docs IMPAle dodging cops, others by FACTOTUM Just a day after the entire police force took the 'Oath of Honour' promising never to betray profession, integrity, character and public trust, no officer kept the pledge to be present at a panel discussion organised by the Independent Medical Practitioners' Association (IMPA). The topic was 'motor accidents caused by medically unfit drivers' who account for an increasing toll of lives everyday. A battery of medical personnel were there with revealing statistics and revolting data to make their point that members of their own fraternity, police and motor traffic departments were allegedly committing offences for questionable considerations and letting loose a host of unfit drivers and prospective killers on hapless society. National Transport Medical Institute Chairman Dr. Gamini Karunanayake with a wealth of experience and resources in this business of training and testing heavy vehicle drivers harked back to the days when SLCTB drivers were periodically examined for their physical and mental fitness to be at that wheel and how our drivers were accorded the topmost slot among drivers worldwide. But a rot had set in when privately owned buses were put on the roads and supernnuated SLCTB drivers gained employment in the private sector! Domestic problems rated high in causing errant behaviour among drivers. The speaker recounted how he himself had had a narrow shave with death when a bus was driven onto his car from the opposite direction with the driver hurling veiled threats and admonitions. Plunging onto the pavement had saved him. The matter had been pursued and the driver nabbed. It had turned out that the errant driver was throwing his weight about with the backing of a politico! Dr. Karunanayake pooh-poohed the present procedure in which police officers were given discretionary powers to refer errant drivers to the Medical Institute. Statistics revealed that the numbers referred to were minimal giving rise to speculation that various pressures and considerations appear to have taken the better of sound judgement. National Hospital Director Dr. Hector Weerasinghe painted the larger picture. In UK fatal motor accidents were as high as 250 per week, higher than in Sri Lanka. A plane crash would get greater publicity though, due to large loss of life in a single incident. But deaths in motor accidents were more although in a single incident the number of victims could be just one. Therefore, such accidents do not attract the publicity that a single plane or train crash does. Accident Service Director Anil Jayasinghe observed that most victims of accidents were pedestrians and that much should be done to ensure their safety. Marking out pedestrian crossings, constructing pavements and lighting up were cases in point. There was passing reference to this paper's cartoon 'Knock-out by Camillus' appearing that very day in which a pedestrian is seen using a magnifying glass to discern the fading and faint markings of a zebra crossing! A lively discussion on a host of other possible causes including the parlous state of roads, road-unworthy vehicles, drunkenness, old age and stress on the middle aged group were taken up. The absence of police and motor traffic department officials, left the discussion incomplete and the opportunity to work out strategies to minimise a social malaise lost. There can be follow up action though with greater persistence where public consciousness, official remedial measures and vigilance should be paramount. |
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