Sri Lanka yesterday tightened the rules governing the around 1mn tuk-tuks – rickety three-wheel taxis – on its streets after road traffic accidents claimed a record 3,000 lives last year.
The transport ministry said all tuk-tuks must now have head and tail lights, and made it an offence for drivers to smoke while carrying passengers.
All three-wheelers will also have to be fitted with fare meters and issue receipts to passengers, it said in a notice in the country’s official gazette.
The transport ministry also made it mandatory for the ubiquitous tuk-tuks to have electrically operated windscreen wipers and cabin lights.
Police estimate that 3,000 people died on Sri Lanka’s roads last year and about 15% of those were tuk-tuk passengers.
Another 100,000 people are seriously wounded in traffic accidents each year in Sri Lanka.
Last month, the government announced raising the minimum traffic fines from about 500 rupees ($3.3) to 25,000 rupees ($166) in a bid to make
Sri Lankan roads safer.
The vast majority of three wheelers in Sri Lanka have been imported from neighbouring India and most of them are in poor condition.
Three-wheelers crowd on a street without taking passengers during a strike in Colombo last month. Hundreds of three-wheeler drivers associated with the United National Three Wheeler Drivers and Industry Workers Union in Sri Lanka went on strike in December against the government’s proposal to raise the average traffic fine of 500 rupees to 25,000 rupees ($166) from January.