Alumni Spotlight: Dr. H.R.Pasindu, Sri Lanka

As a Council Member of the National Council for Road Safety in Sri Lanka, Dr. Pasindu has played a key role in setting up the country’s first road safety research grant scheme.

The first project funded by this scheme has been a study to investigate the causal factors for motorcycle crashes and make recommendations on the motor cycling license issuance process and driver training.

Motorcycles are by far the most common vehicle on Sri Lankan roads and more than more than 90% of crash victims are pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.[1]

The study therefore aims to identify the main gaps in competencies in motorcycle riders based on crash patterns and identify how training and assessment processes during the license issuance can improve safety.

Dr. Pasindu has also been a member of the team that developed the Sri Lanka Accident Data Management System. This offers a platform for Police Officers to record and update crash data providing improved quality assurance in the data collection and recording process as well as improved location identification and features such crash mapping and crash data analytics.

Under this scheme Traffic Police units in selected Provinces are piloting the use of tablets to record the crash information on site including uploading images of the crash site.

Understanding evidence-based road safety is a core element of Delft Road Safety Courses. Dr. Pasindu’s work is ensuring that Sri Lanka has strong data systems and research to underpin its own road safety interventions. This ensures targeted work that is effective, efficient, and high impact.

[1] https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2021/11/04/sri-lanka-s-journey-to-road-safety