Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) in Sri Lanka have seen a concerning increase in 2024 compared to 2023. This year, a total of 22,967 accidents were reported between 1 January and 13 December, surpassing the 22,804 incidents recorded in 2023, underlining the urgent need for effective measures to curb road accidents and their devastating impacts.
A total of 2,243 people lost their lives and 4,552 sustained serious injuries in RTAs in 2024. Of these incidents, 2,141 were fatal, 4,552 were classified as serious, and 8,338 were minor accidents.
The data also shows that pedestrians are the most vulnerable group, with 792 reported incidents, followed by motorcyclists with 691 reported accidents. Other groups affected include drivers (159 incidents), cyclists (295 incidents), and passengers (152 incidents).
Govt. focus
To address the alarming rise in RTAs, the Ministry of Transport plans to hold a special meeting on Tuesday (31), chaired by the Minister of Transport.
Ministry of Transport Public Relations Officer Damian Weerakkody revealed that the meeting would be held to bring together all relevant authorities from various departments. He shared that they were planning to develop a strategic approach that spanned short-, medium-, and long-term solutions to address the issue. However, he was reluctant to provide a comprehensive comment before the meeting.
When asked about specific issues to be discussed, Weerakkody highlighted three major areas of concern.
The first is structural issues of roads, such as black spots and necessary repairs. He noted that the discussion would explore ways to mitigate these problems.
“The Government does not have much funds, so we had a discussion yesterday with University of Moratuwa Faculty of Engineering Department of Civil Engineering Prof. H.R. Pasindu. There are measures that can be taken that do not require a great deal of financial investment in order to improve road safety. Therefore, we need to understand what those measures are,” he said.
The second focus will be on vehicle standards, particularly the condition of tyres and brakes, to ensure vehicles are roadworthy and safe to operate.
Lastly and most significantly, Weerakkody underlined human factors as major contributors to road accidents. He cited behaviours such as drunk driving and the use of mobile phones while driving as key issues. “About 60-70% of road accidents are caused by undisciplined drivers, primarily motorists and three-wheeler drivers,” he stated.
Need for a network-level audit
Meanwhile, Prof. Pasindu, a former Council Member of the National Council for Road Safety, noted that Sri Lanka already had a reasonably well-constructed road network, particularly with well-designed ‘A’-class and ‘B’-class roads.
While there are no significant design flaws, there are road segments where design improvements addressing visibility and alignment, installation of traffic control devices (road markings and warning signs), and safety devices (e.g. guardrails) can enhance road safety and reduce accidents. In order to achieve this, Prof. Pasindu emphasised the importance of conducting a network-level audit to identify critical problem areas and prioritise interventions.
“If a network-level assessment is undertaken, identifying the critical issues and determining the cost involved, a lot of money can be saved,” he observed.
Currently, interventions are implemented without network-level studies, often focusing on selected roads, resulting in less effective outcomes. Prof. Pasindu advocated a systematic safety audit, stating: “This is something I have been advocating for a long time. We are yet to perform such a network-level audit and prioritise our mitigation efforts.”
Ineffective committees
Based on his experience of being a part of several committees, he expressed dissatisfaction with the lack of continuity in committees formed under various governments. He observed that despite forming multiple committees, their findings were often disregarded or forgotten when new officers took over.
“The committee will meet and claim to have come up with a report, yet that will be another five years wasted,” he remarked, criticising the inefficiency within the system.
Prof. Pasindu recommended empowering the National Council for Road Safety or the establishment of a national road safety commission with more authority and financial autonomy, which would be mandated to develop a road safety action plan.
The National Council for Road Safety, comprising representatives from relevant Government sectors, previously produced a Road Safety Strategic Plan in 2010 and 2019 under the Decade of Action for Road Safety initiative with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Prof. Pasindu urged the Government to build on this existing work, stating: “There is no need to reinvent a new strategic plan; what is available is more than enough.”
He suggested prioritising actions based on existing research, stating that committee appointments were not necessary at the moment, “because the same people, officials from the Police, Road Development Authority (RDA), Ministry of Health, etc., who have met in the last five years, will meet again in such committees”.
Key solutions
Prof. Pasindu further highlighted the importance of prioritising initiatives that did not impose significant financial burdens under the current context where the Government may not possess the necessary fiscal capacity for high investments.
Changes to laws relating to enforcement, improving driver licence evaluation methods, and introducing a demerit point system are examples of cost-effective measures that will have immediate gains. He pointed out that a demerit point system, recommended over a decade ago, remained unimplemented despite its feasibility.
A key solution proposed by him involves implementing a comprehensive road data management system. He explained that pilot projects in the Western and Central Provinces demonstrated the system’s effectiveness, providing accurate data on crash histories and high-risk road segment identification (accident blackspots). However, lack of funding has hindered full implementation across the country.
“If the new accident data management system is implemented completely, high-risk accident segment identification will be part of it,” he explained. The existing system, the Micro Accident Analysis Programme (MAAP), is outdated, and while the Sri Lanka Accident Data Management System (SLADMS) was developed to address these gaps, it has not been implemented across the country yet.
Prof. Pasindu recommended integrating accident studies into routine Traffic Police activities rather than treating them as standalone projects. “What we are advocating is for this to be part of the routine rather than a separate study,” he said, emphasising the need for efficiency.