Sri Lanka, Jan. 21 -- It was just a few days ago that we commented in these spaces about the increasing accident rate in the country, whose roads are known to be among the deadliest in Asia, if not the world. But today, we want to focus on another aspect that hardly gets mentioned in the news media.

Just last week, a 17-year-old motorcycle rider who had been "racing" at night with a 19-year-old died on the spot when his motorcycle crashed into a car coming from the opposite direction on a deserted road stretch in Horana. An analysis of the video shows that the boy, who was not wearing a secured helmet and who had no headlights on, lost control of his motorcycle at high speed and crashed into the oncoming vehicle. The other rider also cra...