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By Brian Afuang
WE are all road users. Poor education, general
misconceptions and a low level of awareness have led many Filipinos
to mistakenly believe that the issue of road safety impacts only on
vehicle owners. But the fact is everybody who uses the streets—be
they pedestrians, motorists, peddlers, beggars and the like—all
have a stake in the issue, and the lack of knowledge in this regard
comes at a staggering cost to lives and the economy.
The numbers tell part of the sad story. Figures
cited by the United Nations (UN) Development Account, which is
tasked with improving road safety worldwide, put traffic-related
deaths at 1.2 million a year and injuries at more than 40 million
globally. The UN considers it a public health crisis on the same
scale as AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
The World Health Organization (WHO), for its
part, estimates that between 2000 and 2015, 20 million deaths and
200 million serious injuries caused by road accidents will occur,
with hundreds of millions of people more left to suffer the loss of
loved ones or to care for surviving victims. In its 2000 figures,
WHO ranked road accidents the seventh biggest killer in the world,
and by 2020, WHO forecasts it would rise to the third spot, behind
only heart disease and suicide.
Besides being a public-health issue, road safety
is an economic problem as well. The UN contends that in these road
accident-related deaths and injuries, “the large majority” came
or will come from developing countries and “economies in
transition.” WHO, in its World Report on Traffic Injury
Prevention, says that between 2000 and 2020 “road traffic deaths
will decline by about 30 percent in high-income countries but will
increase substantially in low-income and middle-income countries.”
Road crashes cost more than $1 billion a year,
the UN says. To relate the cost on a more personal level, it adds an
entire family could be impoverished when its breadwinner is killed
or injured in a road accident.
As part of a regional road safety program for
the Philippines, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Asean
published an Accident Costing Report that identifies the damages a
road accident incur in what’s called “cost component
categories.” Topping this list is lost output; pain, grief and
suffering; medical costs; property damage; and administrative costs.
Done to quantify the costs, what this list illustrates is that road
accidents are clearly never simple, with effects that reach far
beyond what appear on the surface.
International efforts
No less than the UN is heading the initiatives,
with its various commissions tackling projects related to road
safety in global, regional and local levels. As recently as April
25, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on “improving
global road safety” that stressed the importance for member states
to use the WHO World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention as a
“framework for road safety efforts and implementing its
recommendations.”
The World Bank (WB) is another organization
that’s actively pursuing efforts on improving road safety. While
involved with similar projects as those done by some UN commissions,
one of WB’s most significant undertakings is its establishment of
the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP). In the GRSP, the WB
linked up with auto manufacturers, believing they play major roles
and definitely influence road safety outcome through their products.
It should be noted, though, that some recommendations in the GRSP
differ with some of those in the WHO report.
Philippine setting
Things are not exactly ideal in the Philippines
with regards to road safety—which is only consistent with its
developing-country status. The ADB-Asean Regional Road Safety
Program: Philippines Country Report identified, among others, the
Philippines’ inadequate provision for public transportation as a
road safety problem, as commuters waiting for rides spill onto the
streets, putting themselves at risk.
It also noted that while the country’s
sidewalks are “relatively in good condition,” numerous
obstructions like illegal vendors, electrical posts and even police
and barangay outposts render the sidewalks unusable for
pedestrians—who are then left to walk on streets as a result. The
lack of pedestrian bridges contribute to the problem, too, which is
further compounded by the fact that many pedestrians also do not use
most of these bridges for varying reasons, security, inconvenience
or plain laziness chief among these.
The ADB-Asean report said the country’s
traffic signs and markings have “generally followed”
international standards that were set in the Vienna Convention for
traffic signs in 1968—of which the Philippines is a signatory.
However, the report also said that many traffic signs still do not
conform to standard color and shapes, and noted that in highly
urbanized areas, these signs could “hardly be recognized [much
less read] as they compete with giant billboards in visibility and
craftsmanship.”
While the ADB-Asean report cited the Metro
Manila Development Authority (MMDA) for the agency’s
sidewalk-clearing efforts, it chided the MMDA for closing
intersections in favor of U-Turn slots. The ADB-Asean report noted
that the MMDA’s intention of improving traffic speeds along
arterials sacrifices safety concerns in the process.
Local initiatives
According to the ADB-Asean report, the
Philippine government has set up through an administrative order in
May 1992 the Interagency Road Safety Committee, which is headed by
the secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways, and is
comprised by top officials of the Department of Education,
Department of the Interior and Local Government, Department of
National Defense, Department of Health, Department of Transportation
and Communications (DOTC) and the Safety Organization of the
Philippines.
In 1996, the DOTC was tasked to coordinate all
road safety activities in the country and serve as chair of the
National Road Safety Council (NRSC).
The Philippines’ private sector, for its part,
is markedly more active in road safety initiatives. Not
surprisingly, heading the list of organizations are auto
manufacturers and those that are closely related to the industry.
Ford Group Phils. has several road safety
programs designed for youths that are presently being conducted,
some of which are in partnership with the Tuason Racing School,
which has also embraced road safety as an advocacy. Ford allots a
certain amount from every vehicle it sells to fund its road safety
program, too.
For several years, and along with its massive
environmental efforts, Toyota Motor Phils. has likewise been very
active in road safety projects. Working closely with the Automobile
Association Phils. and the University of the Philippines National
Center for Transportation Studies (UP-NCTS), Toyota has recently
designated the UP Diliman campus as a traffic city model from where
the youth can learn safe road practices. Toyota is involved or funds
other road safety programs as well.
Honda Cars Phils. and its motorcycle arm, Honda
Phils., have taken significant steps too by establishing a huge
facility that’s dedicated to road safety. Called the Honda Safety
Driving Center (HSDC), it offers training courses for drivers and
motorcyclists in a controlled environment.
HSDC General Manager Arnel Doria says Honda sees
it as “a social obligation to spearhead the campaign for improved
traffic discipline and help reduce road accidents in parallel with
government efforts through the NRSC.”
Doria adds, “Honda enjoins the private sector
to band together in this campaign as road safety is everyone’s
concern, regardless of one’s preferred brand of vehicle.”
Speaking of private groups, the Society of
Philippine Motoring Journalists (SPMJ) [The author is a founding
member—Ed.] has for several years been offering training modules
for educators that can be used in high schools. Through funding from
carmakers, the SPMJ commissioned the UP-NCTS to create the modules,
which have now been used in about a hundred high schools in Metro
Manila.
The road ahead
With driver error as the most common reason in
road accidents, the ADB-Asean report recommends the government
should implement stricter drivers’ licensing and drivers’
education programs. It also calls for campaigns to prohibit street
children, vendors and others from roadways, and for concerned
government agencies to improve their data collection. The report
frowns on the trial-and-error experimentation presently being
conducted with regards to traffic schemes. It also says the basic
attitude on traffic issues of everybody concerned should be
improved.
In other words, it’s everybody’s sense of
responsibility and regard for proper traffic practices that will
ensure the safety of the roads that bind us all.
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