Road accidents are on the rise in Sri Lanka and the country is heading towards a record-breaking death toll due to unawareness and indiscipline by both vehicle drivers and pedestrians, say officials from the government and the private sector. This was emphasised at a media briefing organised by Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC at the Colombo [...]

The Sunday Times Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka reaching record-breaking death toll from road accidents

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Road accidents are on the rise in Sri Lanka and the country is heading towards a record-breaking death toll due to unawareness and indiscipline by both vehicle drivers and pedestrians, say officials from the government and the private sector.

This was emphasised at a media briefing organised by Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC at the Colombo Swimming Club last week.

Kishu Gomes, Managing Director and CEO of the company said, “Around 60,000 lives were lost during the civil conflict in 2009, but the number of deaths today are rapidly increasing more than that due to road accidents.” Road ‘terrorism’ is the next major dilemma the country is going to face where thousands of lives are lost year-on-year with 2015 statistics showing that seven people are killed per day on average due to road accidents, he added.

He noted that after the war ended in 2009, people expected economic development for the country’s 21 million people which is still in progress even after the government change. “Sri Lanka has not been able to achieve economic independence or social equality after 30 years of conflict,” he noted.

Mr. Gomes stated that Sri Lanka is still regarded a middle income country with its per capita income remaining at US$3,400 for the last 30-40 years. He said, “We do not even have enough money to provide free medicines to hospitals island-wide. There are no elephant fences provided to prevent attacks from elephants in rural villages. Rural school children walk at least 10-15 kilometers to get into a bus to go to school.”

“Everyone has to think from their point of view, what they can do to make a difference in the country. We need to change the attitude and behaviour of the people in order to create the awareness and strict regulations and driving disciplines,” he noted.

It was also mentioned at the media briefing that road accidents in Sri Lanka has doubled or tripled that of in other developing countries. The country needs to individually focus to reduce the number of deaths and make the roads a safer place for people to travel.

According to the statistics issued by the Sri Lanka Police Department – Motor Vehicles section, 18,774 road accidents were reported in 2015 whereas more than 19,916 accidents were reported till end of June 2016. Also 1471 people were killed due to road accidents in 2015 whereas till June 2016, 1370 people were killed for  the same reason.

Chevron Lubricants Lanka PLC is at the forefront in promoting road safety through many awareness initiatives done over the past 12 years. Having identified the need to address the urgency for effective road safety awareness, the company re-launched ‘Caltex Drive Wise, Embrace Life’ campaign recently.

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