Road accidents -mirror our culture of corruption - EDITORIAL

The escalating number of road accidents in our country demands urgent and comprehensive action to bring the situation under control. Road accidents have become a grave concern, with a steady rise in fatalities and injuries.
In the year 2021, there were be 2,414 fatal road accidents in the country. The death toll was 2,513. A total of 6,401 people were seriously injured in the accidents, leaving them permanently disabled.

According to police reports, over 700 persons have died in road accidents within the first four months of 2023.
According to police spokesman motorcycles were identified as the cause for a majority of the accidents, followed by three-wheeler vehicles.
He added that 8,202 accidents have been reported as of 30th April 2023. 

The problem of ‘death on the road’ is not a new one. According to data released by the Police Motor Traffic Department, on average, eight people have died daily due to road accidents since 2016.
The data reveals 20,728 people have been killed in road accidents in the seven-and-half year period between 1 January 2016 and 30 June 2023; in a total of 223,451 accidents. .
Data collected since the beginning of 2023 indicates a disturbing toll of 1,192 deaths. Careless driving and speeding, have been the primary causes of these accidents.

Just two day’s ago a falling tree landed on a bus in the heart of Colombo, killing five and injuring a number of other passengers. In this instance the fault lay not with the driver of the vehicle concerned, but with municipal authorities who are failing to maintain safety checks on the numerous trees which line our roadways.
On the same day media reported over 30 persons -including 15 school children- were injured in two separate head-on collisions at Kuliyapitiya and Nittambuwa.

Former member of th Colombo Municipal Council -Shemila Gonawila- claimed, of trees which line the city roads, only trees with a commercial value are given high priority for pruning or cutting as the wood fetches high prices. Older and more vulnerable trees which do not have a commercial value are overlooked by corrupt officials who demand residents in the vicinity pay large sums of cash...

Police media spokesman often cite driver carelessness in road accidents, indicating a need for stricter law enforcement and penalties for traffic violations. The fact of the matter however, is that the law becomes a dead letter in the face of corruption and interference in enforcement of the law.
It is an open secret that a driving license can be obtained via corrupt officials for a few rupees more, courtesy the department concerned. Again, well-to-do and well-connected offenders are able to escape the long-arm of the law via business and other connections.

The problem therefore is the rampant corruption which rules our daily lives.
Not long ago the Committee On Public Finance (COPF) exposed how an acre of government land was sold at Rs. 375/-; an asking price of Rs. 2/- per perch! ‘We the people’ are still unaware of action taken against the wrong doers.

The massive Central Bank bond scandal -a financial laundering scam, was perpetrated on this country in February 2015. It caused losses of more than US $11 million to the nation. The main suspect, a ‘respected’ member of society roams the globe openly and at will.
Thanks to connections in the upper echelons of society even a red notice issued by Interpol was not served on him!

Members of parliament are provided duty-free luxury vehicles. Many of these duty-free vehicles are in the hands of well-to-do merchants and elite in society who purchase them from our law-makers.
Corruption today rules supreme. When even law-makers turn law breakers it could lead the populace to take the law into their hands as happened during the days of the ‘Aragalaya’.
This is the last thing this country needs at a stage it is trying to reset its economy.
Let’s hope authorities get their act together before a similar calamity befalls the country.