The Injury Prevention and Control Unit of the Ministry of Health said that excessive speed resulting from driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol, mental stress, and sleepiness were identified as the foremost factors affecting the increase in fatal road accidents.
During the last two weeks, several fatal road accidents were reported from all over the country including the accident where State Minister Sanath Nishantha and another died. Most recently, two people were reported dead while four others have been admitted for medical treatment following an accident that took place on 28 January along the Sella Kataragama Road.
Against this backdrop, speaking to the media yesterday (29), the unit’s Head and Injury Prevention Programme National Programme Manager Consultant Community Physician Dr. Samitha Siritunga noted that most road accidents reported in Sri Lanka were due to excessive speed and therefore urged the public, especially young people, not to drive vehicles exceeding the average speed. He reiterated that sleepiness, mental stress, fatigue, and driving under the influence of alcohol could result in excessive speed, and that therefore, people must be responsible in avoiding vehicles if they were suffering from any such condition.
Moreover, Dr. Sirithunga said that drivers could not make sudden decisions due to excessive speed and that the inability to react to the incident on the spot could cause severe damage to their lives. He advised drivers to maintain an average speed while driving their vehicles and to be cautious whenever the speed exceeded the prescribed speed limit.
“Excessive speed always makes the driver unable to react to something expeditiously. Therefore, they will not be able to make a decision on what they should do at a glance. Some other reasons like fatigue, the consumption of alcohol, sleepiness, and mental stress could affect excessive speed. Therefore, we urge the people, especially youths, to be cautious regarding these factors whenever they speed up the vehicle,” he added.
Last year, it was revealed that at least one person has died in 10 road accidents every three hours in Sri Lanka since 2016. According to data released by the Police Motor Traffic Department, on average, eight people have died daily due to road accidents since 2016. The data showed that 20,728 people were killed in road accidents in the seven-and-a-half-years between 1 January 2016 and 30 June 2023, in a total of 223,451 accidents.