Monday 12th May, 2025
A tragic road accident near Kotmale claimed 21 lives yesterday and left 35 others seriously injured. Disaster struck when a state-owned bus plying from Kataragama to Kurunegala via Nuwara Eliya, veered off a winding road and plunged down a precipice. Yesterday’s tragedy has jolted politicians and officials alike into action, but it is bound to be forgotten soon. Sri Lanka lacks a proper national strategy to prevent road fatalities. Hardly a day passes without a fatal road traffic accident being reported. About 2,243 people were killed and 4,552 others seriously injured in road accidents in 2024. Of those mishaps 2,141 were fatal.
The cause of yesterday’s accident had not been established at the time of going to press. The ill-fated bus had gone out of control due to a technical fault, according to some reports, but a survivor has been quoted as saying the vehicle was speeding. One can only hope that the police, the SLTB and the Transport Ministry will conduct a thorough probe into Sunday’s accident and take action to prevent such tragedies.
A World Bank report, Delivering Road Safety in Sri Lanka; Leadership Priorities and Initiatives to 2030, reveals that ‘the high road crash fatality and injury rates on Sri Lanka’s roads undermine the economic growth and progress made over the past decade on reducing poverty and boosting prosperity’. The report says the annual crash deaths per capita in Sri Lanka are twice the average rate in high-income countries and five times that of the best performing countries in the world! Sri Lanka reportedly has the worst road fatality rate among its immediate neighbours in the South Asia region.
It has been revealed that many drivers operate while being impaired by alcohol or drugs. In 2021, then the government disclosed that about 80% of the private bus drivers in Colombo and its suburbs were under the influence of drugs while on duty. The situation must be more or less the same where other heavy vehicle drivers are concerned. Trucks ply like bats out of hell on busy roads, terrorising other road users, making one doubt the sobriety of their drivers. The initial detection of impaired driving with visual inspection is relatively easier where drunk drivers are concerned, but the task of nabbing drugged divers is far more difficult. Hence the need for methods such as random roadside drug tests.
Complaints abound that passenger buses are not properly maintained or even regularly cleaned. Their owners try to teach politicians how to govern the country while they are doing precious little to operate their own buses in a civilised manner. Successive governments have not cared to arrest the deterioration of the SLTB, much less develop it to provide a better service. About 2,000 SLTB buses are out of service, mainly for want of spares, according to the Transport Ministry, and the roadworthiness of the ones in operation is reportedly in question. No surprise that the SLTB fleet is plagued by technical defects.
Meanwhile, a road safety expert, a few years ago, proposed that bamboo be planted on the slopes adjacent to curvy roads to stabilise soil, maintain the integrity of land in those areas and complement engineered structures such as guardrails to prevent vehicles from plunging down precipices. Nothing much has since been heard about this proposal, which deserves the attention of the authorities responsible for ensuring road safety.
Road safety experts have identified the following factors, inter alia, as the common causes of crashes on expressways and other roads in Sri Lanka: speeding, distractions, recklessness, fatigue, driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics, inclement weather conditions, inadequate road conditions, tailgating, improper lane changes, inexperience of drivers, overtaking dangerously, poor visibility, unroadworthy vehicles, poor signage or lack of road markings and impatience or time pressure. One of the aforesaid factors or a combination of two or more of them could lead to fatal accidents on any road. So, any strategy to prevent road mishaps consists in addressing those causes.
One can only hope that yesterday’s tragic accident will galvanise the authorities concerned to make a truly national effort to save lives being lost on roads.
