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Strap up or face fines
View(s):- Rear seat belt requirement for passengers on expressways to come into effect to curb toll of road accidents
By Dilushi Wijesinghe
From August 1, all rear-seat passengers travelling in light vehicles will be required to wear seat belts when entering expressways, in line with the Action Plan for Safer Vehicles: 2025 – 2026 of the Ministry of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation. “All passengers will be checked at highway entrance checkpoints,” Traffic Management and Road Safety Division Director SSP Manoj Ranagala, said.
The directive, issued by the Transport Ministry, will also apply to passenger seats in all vehicles, including public transport operating on expressways, with effect from September 1.
On July 4 a bus veered off the Chilaw-Puttalam highway at Deduru Oya and crashed into a tree. Pic by Jayarathna Wikramaarachchi
“Now everyone obeys the rule, as it is mandatory. The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Priyantha Weerasooriya has issued a directive instructing all the divisions, along with Police Constables and Officers-in-Charge, to constantly monitor whether the rule is being obeyed, especially in passenger transport vehicles,” SSP Ranagala said. “If they disobey, they will be sued and fined.”
The regulation comes in the wake of a spate of major accidents across the island, many of them fatal. In the past three months alone, eight serious accidents have been reported.
On May 11, a tragic accident occurred when an SLTB bus veered off a cliff, killing 23 passengers and injuring more than 35 others. Two days later, a bus accident in Aladeniya left 37 people injured. On May 24, a private bus travelling from Nuwara Eliya to Kandy overturned on the main road, injuring 23.
June saw three more serious crashes. On June 11, a bus travelling from Monaragala to Colombo crashed on the Avissawella-Colombo old road, injuring 15 passengers. Another accident occurred near Minnana Junction in Eheliyagoda, where a head-on collision of a bus and lorry left 23 injured. On June 21, a bus toppled down a precipice in Badulla, resulting in three deaths and more than 25 injuries.
This month, accidents have continued. On July 3, an SLTB bus overturned in Wattegama, injuring 15 passengers. The following day (July 4), another bus veered off the Chilaw-Puttalam highway at Deduru Oya and crashed into a tree.
The Road Safety Action Plan of the Ministry of Transport for 2025-2026 highlights that private buses (6%) cause three times more road accidents than CTB buses (2%). “Although fewer in number, the impact is significant due to higher passenger loads,” the action plan stated.
Kottawa interchange of the Southern Highway: Doctors who were part of an awareness programme conducted yesterday regarding safety on the roads distributing leaflets. Pic by Akila Jaywardena
The action plan also highlights that prosecuted bus offences from 2020 to 2024 reveal key behavioural risks behind road accidents.
Traffic law violations dominate, averaging 11,426 cases annually (74%), followed by speeding (1,762-11%), reckless driving (1,312-9%), and drug-impaired driving (318-2%). Driving under the influence alone caused 354 fatal bus crashes and 356 deaths, averaging 71 fatal crashes and 75 deaths per year.
“These patterns underscore the urgent need to address driver behaviour in bus safety interventions,” the action plan stated. “Sri Lanka must reduce road deaths by about 267 annually to reach the global benchmark of deaths per 100,000 population. This requires shifting from fragmented and reactive efforts to a proactive, system-based and outcome-driven approach that tackles the root causes of unsafe mobility.”
Meanwhile yesterday, at the Kottawa interchange of the Southern expressway three well-known specialist orthopedic surgeons Dr. Narendra Pinto, Dr. R. Gnanasekaram, and Dr. Ranjith Ellawala from the College of Surgeons of Sri Lanka joined officials from the Ministry of Transport in distributing awareness leaflets about safety on the roads.
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