License to Kill?

 The Government of Srilanka has the legitimate right to take appropriate steps either to minimize or eliminate road accidental deaths on roads caused by speeding, wrongly overtaking,  drunken or unlicensed drivers. New fine proposal made in the 2017 budget in respect of several traffic offences is a right decision taken at the right time in the right direction in the best interest of the public. But the Government should make it public the methodology to be followed in imposing fines. As the fine is high and in the eyes of the vehicle drivers the police are corrupt, the Government cannot leave the implementation in the hands of the police alone. There should be checks and balances. Vehicle drivers allege as the police is corrupt, if they are caught by the police for one of the offences that fine to be imposed for, there is no evidence to say otherwise. They are therefore at the mercy of the police. They have no legal way to contest the police allegation. There is no way for them to prove otherwise. The end result is that they will try to bribe the policemen, which leads to increase in bribe.

Why traffic offences increase?

Apart from over speed , drunken or unlicensed drivers driving buses and other vehicles including three wheelers, traffic congestion, which makes vehicle drivers to violate the law due to frustration, road users have to go through on a daily basis  is another reason for traffic offences.. The Government should make the public transport system better, so that people want to use it instead of driving their car individually thus reducing traffic congestion. In addition infrastructure for road transport should be developed. We should have a road network that is safe for both pedestrians and motorists.

Proposed controversial New Fines:

The government has proposed a fine of Rs. 25, 000 on seven traffic offences to encourage road discipline.

The seven offences are:

1. Drunk driving

2. Driving without a vehicle insurance

3. Driving without valid license

4. Speeding

5. Overtaking from the left side

6. Driving across unprotected rail-crossing

7. Allowing a person without a valid license to drive your vehicle

The Transport Ministry also said in a statement that CCTV cameras would be set up at all unprotected rail crossings to ensure the law is abided by.

Omission of an Important Offence:

Crossing middle white line by motorist is another reason which cause accidents and deaths on road. However, this has not been included among  the above seven (7) offences. Observers say, that  this has not been included because most of the VIPs, politician’s vehicles often cross middle white line.

Legality of Fines on Traffic Violations:

Several veterans in the legal field said, that the Finance Minister had considered proposing of new taxes and imposing fines to be the same. If a fine is imposed in the same manner a tax is imposed, it will be a violation of the constitution. Imposition of a fine could be proposed through a budget but implementation can be done only through an act of parliament. Fines become law only after an act or amendment to an act being passed in Parliament and speaker signs the document. As per clause 13.06 of paragraph 111 on fundamental rights in the constitution doesn’t provide for the backdated imposition of   a fine. Further punishment for an offence should not exceed the punishment spelt out by the law at the time the offence was committed.

Good example is that the Finance Minister’s amendment to the Value Added Tax (VAT), and Supreme Court annulled it, as that was not in line with the provision in clause 152 of the constitution and the parliamentary standing order 133.

Minister of Transport Nimal Siripala de Silva too said, fines cannot be imposed immediately, and it has to go through Cabinet, Parliament and an amendment bill to the Transport Act, which normally takes a long time. Hence, no need to get panic on this issue. Further, he said the Government will monitor the effectiveness of the increased fines, especially to determine whether it will eventually reduce traffic offences and then decide whether to continue it or not.

Public opinion on fines:

While most of the public is in support of fines proposed, a few said that they can’t afford to pay such a heavy fine and could be revised. However, they said in unison thus “We as people of Srilanka should not allow private bus operators and three wheel drivers to hold the country into ransom by striking. The very people, who cause the most traffic accidents on the roads, are against these new fines. The government should not give in to their demand to rescind the fines”.

Available Alternative Proposal:

If the Government is really interested in reducing deaths on road, the best method is to introduce the point system. If there is a point system like in Australia and in few foreign countries, such a system will be more effective. When the speed limit is exceeded he or she would lose a point and to regain it, they have to wait for one year or more. If someone loses all points the license would be either taken back or cancelled. Everyone is keen to keep the license, so they would be extremely careful. In addition a proper road network to be planned.

Traffic, Speed, Accident and Death Statistics:

According to available statistics the average speed of vehicles travelled in the year 2015 was 12 Km per hour. In the same year, 2015 number of three wheelers entered Colombo stood 23,000 per day. In the year 2012 number of vehicles that entered Colombo was 27,300 per day. Considering the number of vehicles entering Colombo, this problem should be carefully handled and need to be addressed.

Comparative Road Accident details:

In the year 2015, while fatal accidents were 2,590, critical accidents recorded numbered 7,719 and minor accidents counted 13,095, total road accident deaths stood at 2801. Where as in the last 10 months in 2016 two thousand four hundred (2,400) deaths  have been recorded in road accidents. So many murderers are on the road.

Rush to obtain Medical Report to obtain license:

After the new fines were announced, unlicensed drivers who drove the killer heavy vehicles on the road in the past rushed to the Medical Examination Unit of the Motor Traffic Department at Nugegoda on 29^th November 2016, and created a commotion there. Police had to be called to control the crowd. Same situation was faced at the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles Office. Since then daily more than 1,000 applicants call over  there for Medical Examination daily to date, said Chief Medical Officer Dr.  Rohana Puspakumara. What does it indicate? All of them in the past drove vehicles on the road without a valid license and killing people at will. What did the police do in this regard in the past? public asked. Another interesting feature is road accidents have been reduced by 10%n since this fine announcement. Once implementation takes off the grounds, it is certain that accident rate will further go down.

Islanwide Bus Strike Launched on Friday, 2nd December 2016:

Inter Provincial Private  Bus association {IPPBA) led by Sarath  Vijitha  Kumara and several other trade unions in unison launched an island wide strike against new fines of Rs 2,500 and Rs 25,000 announced by the Government  paralyzing the road public transport on Friday, 2^nd December 2016. They demanded that both fines announced should be withdrawn forthwith to call off the strike. He demanded that the increased fines could only be charged only after providing proper infrastructure in road transport. He had further stated that the strike would last for five days, if the President didn’t intervene to settle the matter.

While Gemunu  Wijeratne,  leader of  the Lanka Private  Bus Owners Association (LPBOA) publicly  declared,  that the proposed strike on Friday was an unpatriotic act leading to a suicidal attempt and disassociated with it, his members participated  en block in the strike. President of the IPPBA said, he was unwilling to engage in further talks even if asked to by the President. IPPBA has even threatened action against the LPBOA led by Gemunu Wijeratne,  if they tried to operate buses despite strike. Poor Gemunu Wijeratne’s pathetic situation cannot be described in words as he couldn’t manage to put even one of his buses on the road to operate during strike.

The Srilanka Transport Board, a State enterprise has deployed 6100 buses during strike to provide transport to public. To a certain extent they were able to  cushion suffering public. However, they did a wonderful job and earned 120 million during strike.

During strike, 120 SLTB buses were stoned causing injuries to passengers apart from damage to buses. In addition, some three wheel drivers who operated on streets were also threatened. Police have arrested 31 persons in this connection  and charged them.

President intervened:

In order to bring the island wide strike to an end, the president  had appointed a 6 member committee comprising the Secretary to the  Ministry of Transport, Secretary to the  Ministry of Finance, DIG of Motor Traffic and Senior  Officers representing Attorney General as well as additional Secretary to the President. The committee met selected representatives of bus owners yesterday , 5thDecember 2016 to discuss. After the discussion the Secretary to the Transport Ministry said that the committee’s recommendation will be submitted to the legal draftsman Department to amend the transport act accommodating new fines. Bus owner’s representatives said that they registered their protest against imposing Rs25,000 fines for over speeding and overtaking on the left side. Further, they demanded a national policy to be formed by the Government in regard to fines, rates and revision

Filtered demand of the bus operators and three wheel drivers:

Out of seven offences listed for fine of Rs25, 000, now their  latest demand is  to remove overtaking on the left side and exceeding the speed limit (over speed).

Drunken driving, over speed and crossing white line is the main three reasons for most of the deaths on road. Granting their demand in other words mean giving them license to kill.

By Rajgay

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