Ceylon Today Editorial

Tragedy on A-9

19 December 2016

Eleven persons, including two women, died in a major accident on the A-9 road, at Chavakachcheri in the Jaffna Peninsula, on Saturday (17).

The head-on crash involving a Sri Lanka Transport Board passenger bus and a mini passenger van carrying holidaymakers from the South resulted in the death of eleven innocent passengers. Since the A- 9 highway reopened for public transportation in 2010, after several years, Saturday's Chavakachcheri accident was the biggest so far considering the number of deaths.

The renovation of A-9 highway, which links the Jaffna Peninsula with other parts of the country, was given priority to enhance North-South relations through more economic oriented activities. The perfection in the road worthiness of the A-9 has led to more business activities taking place targeting the Jaffna Peninsula. However, in the past seven years, since theA-9 highway was opened for public transportation, several accidents have occurred leading to loss of lives.

Last Saturday's major accident in Chavakachcheri, in which ten passengers died instantly, and another on admission at the Hospital, had occurred in broad daylight at 1.15 p.m. The preliminary investigation has revealed there were 12 passengers in the minivan which was going to Jaffna. The accident occurred when the driver lost control of the van and it crashed head-on with an SLTB bus, heading towards Vavuniya from Jaffna, carrying nearly forty passengers.

The A-9 remains one of the longest highways in the country, linking North and South and it has also been identified as one on which motorists are noted for speeding and reckless driving. Despite the presence of the Traffic Police at several key points on the A-9 highway to take action against errant drivers, accidents on the highway have been reported frequently.

The government has decided to adopt stringent measures following the increase in the traffic offences in the country at large. In the recent past, several accidents have taken place throughout the country with manifold increase in motor transport.

Following the talks involving the Ministers of Finance and Transport along with the Police and representatives of transport sector unions, two weeks ago, the necessity of imposing a minimum fine of Rs 25,000 for seven traffic offences, such as 1. Driving under the influence of alcohol, 2. Driving without a valid driver's licence, 3. Allowing a person who does not have a valid driver's licence to drive a vehicle, 4. Excessive speed, 5. Overtaking from the left, 6. Violating railway crossing rules and 7. Driving without an insurance certificate was found inevitable.

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake, commenting on the increased fines, said the intention of introducing stringent measures was to update the system and to reduce the number of accidents. So, the big accident, which had occurred in Chavakachcheri last Saturday, as the year 2016 was nearing completion, has indicated the necessity of streamlining the country's transport system to be free of accidents and traffic offences in the years to come.

While paying attention to the errant drivers and the traffic offences, the government should also focus its attention on the Department of Motor Traffic and its operations, such as conducting examinations and issuing driving licences. Several complaints have also come up with regard to malpractices in the conduct of examinations and the issuing of licences by the Department of Motor Traffic.

Therefore, while taking decisions on regulating the traffic system, by adopting tougher measures against the errant motorists, the government should also work out a strategy to regularly monitor the operations of the Department of Motor Traffic to ascertain whether the right hands are given the licences to drive.