Arresting fatal accidents on Sri Lanka's highways:
Let’s get our Traffic Act right
By Jayantha Jayaweera
I have just returned from Sri Lanka after attending the Thurstan
College and Isipathana College 50th big match encounter at SSC cricket
grounds. I spent eleven memorable days in Colombo and Galle with my
schoolmates of both schools, whom I met after some considerable time.
During my visit, I noticed a substantial improvement to road
infrastructure, largely thanks to Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s
vision for better roads for the future. I agree with the Defence
Secretary’s courage to rebuild Colombo in line with other larger cities
in the world.
In the past, Colombo was a well-planned city until Ranasinghe
Premadasa became the Prime Minister of the country. He changed the whole
planning procedure that had existed within the City of Colombo since the
times of the British Raj to accommodate his henchmen and party
supporters, and built unauthorised structures all over Colombo. He and
his henchmen politicised the administration of the Town Hall and that
legacy continued for 40 years until recently.
Now, Colombo is much cleaner and has a number of beautiful open
spaces thanks to the Defence Secretary. However, the safety of the
commuters within the island roads is not safe. Driver skill is still
unbelievably below international standards. Government statistics reveal
that the number of people getting killed and injured on roads due to the
motor vehicle accidents have alarmingly increased to unacceptable
levels. The answer to this is that the island roads are not safe for
road users and the government must do something to minimise numbers to
acceptable levels.
The government has been spending billions of rupees to reconstruct
the road network in Sri Lanka since the end of the war. No doubt that
the road pavements are in much better shape than four years ago.
However, the roads are death trap for pedestrians, cyclists,
motorcyclists and motor cars. The question is, how do we improve road
safety for all road users?
Traffic committees
During my short stay, I was driving in and around Colombo and went to
Mirissa on the new express way. My thoughts were that poor driving
skills, lack of clear road signs and traffic calming devices at crucial
places on the highways are the main contributors for the continuation of
this carnage. Drivers in Sri Lanka do not have any understanding of road
rules and do not have any respect for other road users, and drive
aggressively.
This is very dangerous when driving at high speeds on the new express
ways. One of the factors contributing to driver behaviour is the lack of
useful signs at roadsides. Part of the problem is that the relevant
authorities with responsibility for traffic in Sri Lanka work
independently. A better approach would be to install road signs along
all major highways and introduce driver safety awareness schemes in
alliance with the traffic Police and Motor Registration Authority.
Traffic committees should be formed at district levels consisting
representative from Traffic police, Traffic Engineers from Local
Councils and RDA and local politicians. A unified approach will help
solve differences among authorities and confusion among drivers.
Driver skills
In Sri Lanka, we cannot divide drivers into categories like in other
developed countries.
I have only one category for them: it is the worst category. This is
a good start and will help the authorities to develop and implement a
tier system for driver licensing. The existing system for driver
training and procedure for driver licence issuing within the Motor
Registration Authority is corrupt and must be examined and reviewed. It
is a crime to obtain a driver licence and be at the wheel without having
appropriate skills.
These unskilled drivers are a risk to others and licensing them is
equivalent to giving them licence to kill innocent road users. Our road
network has changed dramatically after the introduction of express ways
into the network in 2011.
The new roads are designed and constructed to go faster. Modern day
drivers love to speed, especially the youngsters. Therefore it is the
right time to making changes to existing driver testing procedures.
I suggest that a new Highway Code for trainer drivers be developed
and published.
The driver testing procedure should be divided into two parts: a
knowledge test and a practical test.
Computerised examinations based on the Highway Code for the knowledge
test must be developed. These questions would be stored in a computer
system and be chosen at random when candidates sit for the examination.
Such a system would minimise cheating and will ensure drivers will have
read and understood the Highway Code before setting out on the road.
To minimise corruption, the names of driver examiners attached to the
Motor Registry could be stored in the computer. The examiner’s name will
be picked randomly by the computer when the candidate presents for the
practical test. This procedure will also minimise fraud.
The issuing of a driver’s licence to newcomers should be in the
provisional category and that should be further divided into two
subcategories:
· Provisional Red Plate for one year
· Provisional Green plate for two years.
The provisional red plate drivers are allowed to drive to 80 percent
of the legal speed limit and the green plate drivers 90 percent of the
legal speed. A curfew for red plate drivers could be imposed between
10.00pm and 5.00am on major highways and other necessary restrictions
should be introduced. This would prevent youngsters driving at night
under the influence of alcohol.
Validation of a driver’s licence should be for a maximum of five
years, and all drivers will have to sit for the knowledge test when
their licences require renewing.
Blackspots on highways
While I was driving in Sri Lanka I have noticed that small scale
signs have been installed at certain points warning drivers of
accident-prone areas. The signs are too small to read and not designed
to any standard. The tragedy is that the drivers are not bothered about
the signs and are overtaking vehicles at blind spots. This practice puts
incoming vehicles in a very dangerous situation.
I had a narrow escape somewhere between Koggala and Galle. I was
proceeding to Galle for lunch from the Fortress Hotel in Koggala. Galle
Road is narrow and lacks road shoulders on either side of the road,
which makes the situation worse.
There were a number of pedestrians and cyclists on the road as well.
I was vigilant and driving at 35km/h-40km/h. An incoming passenger bus
(SLTB) overtook another bus on a very narrow bend where a high number of
accidents had happened previously.
There were even warning signs on both sides of the road. However, the
bus driver did not pay attention to the signs and was on the wrong side
of the road doing 60 km/h. I had to use the verge to avoid a head on
collision. He did not even bother to stop or slow down, endangering not
only my life but the lives of the 50 to 60 passengers on his bus. The
positive side is that the RDA has identified that location as a black
spot. However, the signs are clearly not providing any benefit. My
advice is to transform the existing single carriageway into a dual
carriageway by placing Jersey kerbs or a median island in the middle of
the road to a certain distance. This will prevent overtaking and avoid
head-on collisions, and save lives.
Traffic calming devices
There are many pedestrian crossings on all major highways in Sri
Lanka. However, pedestrians have to negotiate painfully to cross the
road through moving traffic.
Moving traffic does not stop for pedestrians, either because they do
not care about pedestrians or they do not understand basic road rules.
The road is for all road users and does not belong only to vehicles.
This attitude towards other road users such as pedestrians and cyclists
must be stopped.
It is too dangerous to cross the road using a pedestrian crossing.
For me they are death traps. The majority of the pedestrian crossings
cannot even be seen after 6.00 pm because there is not enough lighting
provided at them. The rule is to stop your vehicle when you see a
pedestrian step on to the road pavement from the kerb at a pedestrian
crossing. The majority of drivers ignore this rule because of their
attitude towards the other road users.
To overcome this, the authority can introduce raised threshold
pedestrian crossings wherever practicable. The raised threshold
pedestrian crossings slow down the vehicles approaching the crossing due
to the height of the crossing.
The height of the ramps of the threshold would need to be not more
than 150mm above the road pavement to a distance of 2m. Pedestrian
crossing in town centres and outside schools are ideal locations for
raised threshold pedestrian crossings. This would save lives, especially
of school children.
Sri Lanka has been a hot spot for tourists since the end of the war.
The Tourism ministry has a vision of increasing the number of tourists
visiting the island up to 2 million by the end of year 2015. It is the
right time for us to get our Traffic Act right, and eliminate this mania
for good.
The writer, domiciled in Australia is a holder of BSc Civil Eng
(Lon), MIE (Aust), CPEng. degrees. |