|
By Brian Afuang, Motoring
Editor
On April 25, the United Nations
General Assembly, driven by the worsening global road safety
situation—despite action taken by various UN agencies through the
decades—passed “Resolution 62/244 Improving global
road safety.”
The resolution:
1.Invites Member States to
actively participate in the development of the global road safety
status report being prepared by the World Health Organization;
2. Invites all Member States to
participate in the projects to be implemented by the United Nations
regional commissions to assist low- and middle-income countries in
setting their own national road traffic casualty reduction targets,
as well as regional targets;
3. Reaffirms the importance of
addressing global road safety issues and the need for the further
strengthening of international cooperation, taking into account the
needs of developing countries by building capacities in the field of
road safety and providing financial and technical support for their
efforts;
4. Encourages Member States to
continue to strengthen their commitment to road safety, including by
observing the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on
the third Sunday of November every year;
5. Invites the World Health
Organization and the United Nations regional commissions, in
cooperation with other partners in the United Nations Road Safety
Collaboration, to promote multisectoral collaboration by organizing,
when appropriate, United Nations Global Road Safety Weeks, including
Stakeholders’ Forums for Global Road Safety;
6. Encourages organizations in
both the private and the public sector with vehicle fleets,
including agencies of the United Nations system, to develop and
implement policies and practices that will reduce crash risks for
vehicle occupants and other road users;
7. Welcomes the offer by the
Government of the Russian Federation to host and provide the
necessary financial support for the first global high-level
(ministerial) conference on road safety, to be held in 2009, to
bring together delegations of ministers and representatives dealing
with transport, health, education, safety and related traffic law
enforcement issues, to discuss progress in implementing the
recommendations of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury
Prevention and the General Assembly resolutions on improving global
road safety, and provide an opportunity for Member States to
exchange information and best practices;
8. Decides to include in the
provisional agenda of its 64th session the item entitled “Global
road safety crisis,” and requests the Secretary-General to report
to the General Assembly at that session on the progress made in
improving global road safety.
Why the UN passed this urgent
resolution is told by the 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 leading
the initiatives, with its various commissions tackling projects
related to road safety in global, regional and local levels. The UN
General Assembly resolution mentioned above stresses the importance
for member states to use the World Health Organization 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 in 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 situation
In the Philippines, 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—pedestrians, motorists, peddlers, beggars, all of
us—must realize he has a stake in the issue. The lack of road
safety knowledge and the lack of discipline to apply our knowledge
exacts a staggering cost of lost lives, limbs and economic
opportunities.
The reports of both the Metro
Manila Development Authority and the Philippine National Police
describe a frightening situation. It confirms our developing-country
status and shows how far we still are from being First World.
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. (MMDA, however,
has commendably been running various programs without which the
number of fatalities and accidents, which by that agency’s own
count has increased by 250 percent in January to March 2008 over the
same period of January to March 2007.)
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.
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.
Driver errors
With driver error as the most
common cause of 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.
|
