Scourge of asphalt cowboy terror

Wednesday 16th August, 2023

There has been a spike in fatal road accidents recently due to reckless driving. A speeding bus overturned at Bambalapitiya, during the weekend, injuring 15 persons; thankfully there were no fatalities. The driver had ignored the signal lights, the police said.

Road accidents snuff out as many as seven lives a day in Sri Lanka. In 2022, there were about 2,371 fatal road mishaps, which destroyed 2,485 lives, according to the police. The majority of these killer accidents are believed to be preventable. Roads are becoming increasingly dangerous owing to reckless drivers, as is obvious, and many of them are believed to be addicted to drugs or alcohol. They drive like bats out of hell, endangering the lives of all other road users. Experts inform us that drugs and alcohol impair drivers’ cognitive functions, motor skills, reaction time and overall judgment, and it is not surprising that so many lives are lost in road mishaps, day in, day out.

Sri Lankans are notorious for living dangerously even when they are sober. This fact is borne out by their reckless driving/riding and jaywalking; drugs and alcohol have made the roads even more dangerous. Private bus drivers and truckers are the worst culprits. They have become a law unto themselves. It is these dangerous elements who determine the pace of vehicular traffic on any road. If the police make a serious effort to nab them, that will be half the battle in making roads safe, and, above all, the cash-strapped government will be able to rake in a lot of money by way of fines.

In 2021, State Minister of Transport Dilum Amunugama said about 80 percent of private bus drivers in Colombo and its suburbs were drug addicts. Police Spokesman, SSP Nihal Thalduwa, has said most road accidents are usually reported from the Western Province. President of the Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association (LPBOA) Gemunu Wijeratne has admitted that the majority of private bus workers are addicted to drugs. He has attributed their drug addiction to occupational stress caused by long hours of work, traffic congestion, lack of parking facilities, etc. Stress may be one of the drivers of drug or alcohol addiction among private bus workers, as he claims, and something should be done about it, but the fact remains that nothing can be cited in extenuation of ‘drug driving’, which is a danger to everyone. The drug addicts among drivers must be identified, prosecuted and given deterrent punishment if found guilty. Their driving licences must be cancelled for life so that they will cease to endanger the lives of others. Leniency only encourages them to continue to wreak havoc on roads and destroy lives.

The focus of everyone tasked with ensuring road safety is on preventing drunk driving, but drug addicts behind the wheel are equally dangerous and difficult to nab for want of proper testing facilities. The need for roadside drug testing cannot be overstated.

A few months ago, it was reported that the police had arrested several private bus drivers suspected to be driving under the influence of narcotics. Such action is welcome; it will surely help ensure road safety. But random drug testing has to be conducted on a regular basis if it is to be effective.

If the high-performance speedsters, as it were, are identified with the help of cameras, awarded tickets or hauled up before courts regularly and punished with their licences being revoked for life in case of being found guilty of drunk/drug driving, there will be a significant decrease in road accidents.

On expressways, drivers’ speeding skills are duly recognised, and the police courteously present the speedsters with detailed spot fine statements, at exit points; why this method is not employed elsewhere is the question. The government will be able to recover the cost of installing cameras, etc., in next to no time, for this country is full of asphalt cowboys driven by a desire to break the sound barrier, in a manner of speaking.