In  her letter, ‘The Island’, Opinion, December 6, 2008,   Ms. Swarna Jayasinghe is critical of the function of traffic police persons when the traffic lights are working.

The question regarding what a motorist’s response should be when a traffic policeperson is also present directing traffic, when the traffic lights are also working, is a question which is asked in the multiple choice question test given before the practical driving test for obtaining a driving license, in many countries. In these places, motor traffic is more organized and motorists are more educated regarding road traffic rules, which are more rigorously enforced. The options in the questions include: drawing attention of the policeperson to the lights, ignoring the policeperson, ignoring the lights, simply following the traffic etc. The correct answer, which  is obviously not obvious to most Lankan drivers, is that a policeperson who is supposed to have a functioning human brain, understands the dynamics of the given traffic situation better than the traffic lights with a computerized ‘brain’ and therefore, the former’s directions should be followed at all times.

The problem  here is that there are two or more policepersons  at junctions where multiple roads intersect and one policeman seems oblivious to what the other is doing. Moreover, after dark, some of them direct traffic without fluorescent dress and gloves, so that their presence and directions are difficult to see.

In many of India’s big cities, NGO’s are active in bringing about a culture of better, safe and defensive driving through educational programs, thus reducing the morbidity, mortality and expense from road traffic accidents. With the  impending end of the  conflict in the North,  the NGO’s who are currently involved in lobbying for peace to the North,  could re-employ  themselves gainfully in bringing peace to our roads, through such programmes for motorists and the police.