The Kandy News Online Edition
May / June 2005
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Bus Accidents Hypocrisy, Muddled Thinking and Non-Solutions

What is being said and done in the aftermath of the tragic Polgahawela bus accident reveals a lot of hypocrisy, muddled thinking, and non-solutions masquerading as solutions.
First the hypocrisy. It is easy to blame the “private bus drivers” because they are involved in numerous accidents. But road rules and common courtesies are violated by everybody. The almost total non-observation of the roundabout rule at the Ismail clock tower in Kandy is one glaring example. It is a common complaint of traffic police that upper middle class motorists when caught for a traffic offence habitually contact their friends in the upper echelons of the police to get the violation nullified. Ironically it is the same segment of society that complains at dinner parties about Sri Lanka's awful driving culture. But if we are to bring back road discipline the law must apply to all. Sadly in this country that won't happen.

Second, muddled thinking. Excessive speed and bad or plain stupid driving are two among several factors that cause accidents. We are not aware of any serious scientific study that identifies the more important causes of accidents. However, even casual observation suggests that there are several causes including inadequate road design, bad road surface, misuse of roads for purposes other than vehicle and pedestrian traffic, defective vehicles, and parking in wrong places that contribute to the high rate of accidents.
Third, the inability to grasp the complexity of the issue then leads to non-solutions. Here are some post-Polgahawela examples. The Transport Minister grandly announces that he would strengthen the law to reduce accidents. It is not so much the law that is weak but the implementation of the existing law. The police deploys 500 traffic cops on one relatively small stretch of road where the recent accident occurred in a dramatic move to placate public opinion for the moment. But this is not a sustainable and meaningful solution. Similar gestures were made when other such accidents occurred in the past but with no results. The private bus owners want a “timetable” as a solution to the problem. This is another non-starter. How can a country that cannot run a few trains on time under a single management have a timetable to coordinate literally hundreds of buses belonging to different owners plying on multiple routs? This probably must be a joke.
Finally, a point about speed itself. We live in the 21st century where it is reasonable to expect that we travel 50 to 60 miles in one hour or less no matter whether it is by car, van, bus or train. That is what modern transportation is about. It is naive to consider reducing speed as the main “solution” to accidents. Simple economics tells us that slower the speed the more buses you need to transport a given number of people between two points. That will actually make bus transport even more expensive! The solution is to build better roads and manage them and the traffic properly so that everybody can reach their destinations in the shortest possible time. But that unfortunately appears to be beyond the grasp of the people who make policy.

Selling Heritage for a Rupee

In this edition of The Kandy News we report the disgraceful decision of the Kandy Municipal Council to allow a biscuit manufacturing company to display advertisements on the Ismail Clock Tower. The Clock Tower may not have as long a history as some of Kandy's other historical monuments. Neither is it an architectural masterpiece. Nevertheless it is an important landmark.

The Council whose annual grant from the Treasury was slashed this year by the government needs every cent that it can collect to run this city. But do we have to resort to crass commercialism to collect an extra few rupee?

Somebody might say that we crossed that line quite a few years ago when advertising was allowed on the costumes of Kandy Perehara elephants. But the rot must stop somewhere. We urge the KMC not only to desist from allowing advertising on the clock tower but also to get rid of similar advertising that masquerade as greetings to visitors at the principal entrances to Kandy.

As we have stated on several past occasions we are not against advertising which is a part of a modern economy. We as a newspaper rely on advertising to make ends meet. But to behave like philistines to earn a quick buck is unbecoming of a community that is the proud inheritors of a civilization that is over 2500 years old.