4x4 Owners Who Saved Lives in Cyclone Ditwah Now Face Fines for Those Same Mods — Fair?

When Cyclone Ditwah hit in late 2025, affecting over a million people, volunteer 4x4 owners with lifted suspensions, all-terrain tyres, winches and snorkels were pulling families off rooftops and ferrying medicine into villages ambulances couldn't reach, days before formal relief arrived. Now Police are running a nationwide crackdown on "illegally modified" vehicles, and the same mods that made those rescues possible can get a pickup fined or impounded, because there's no separate category in the law for disaster-response vehicles. One side says rules exist for a reason: badly modified buses and jeeps have killed people on our roads, and you can't have a free-for-all just because some mods are used for good. The other side says punishing the exact setup that saved lives, right as forecasters warn of a wetter few months ahead, is going to mean fewer volunteers showing up next time the water rises. Should there be a registered "rescue vehicle" exemption, or does any exception just become a loophole every modified trishaw and lorry claims next? Should mods be judged by how they're used, not just the spec sheet? ඔබේ අත්දැකීම කුමක්ද?