Recto to gov’t: Address road safety beyond PowerPoint talk

MANILA, Philippines – In a span of two months, road and vehicular safety in the Philippines has taken the spotlight – but for all the wrong reasons.

Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, in a statement on Tuesday, February 11, said that given the number of road accidents reported, there is now a “national epidemic of road deaths.”

The available reports on road accidents, although “spotty and fragmented,” already give alarming numbers, Recto said. 

In 2011, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority recorded 77,110 vehicular accidents – or one every 7 minutes. As a result, over 396 people died in the National Capital Region (NCR) alone.

In contrast, the Department of Public Works and Highways recorded only 16 deaths connected to road accidents in NCR.

Recto called on government to “[translate] from PowerPoint presentation to actual implementation” its Philippine Road Safety Action Plan for 2011-2020.

“It can begin by tapping the P12-billion annual collection from Road Users Tax for road safety,” said Recto in the statement. Republic Act 8794, said the senator, allocates 7.5% of collections for road safety.

Mid-December last year, at least 18 people died after a Don Mariano city bus fell off the Metro Manila Skyway, crushing a van plying the West Service Road of the South Luzon Expressway below.

Late last week, at least 14 died on the spot after a Florida bus fell into a ravine in Bontoc, Mountain Province. Recto in the statement urged government to conduct random inspections of public utility vehicles set to embark on long trips.

The Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) earlier suspected GV Florida Transport, owner of the bus that fell into the ravine, because the bus was “not duly authorized by this Board to operate as a for-hire vehicle.” The company had attached a different plate number onto the bus.

Investigators in Bontoc earlier suspected that human error or loose breaks caused the crash.

Public outcry to implement reforms in public transport has been strong following the two incidents. One online petition urged the LTFRB to require speed limiters on all city and provincial buses.

The LTFRB is set to conduct a special audit of all public utility buses in the country. But LTFRB Chairman Winston Ginez earlier admitted it would be a gargantuan task to audit over 400,000 public buses with a workforce of only 400 nationwide.

Recto reminded the transportation and communication department, which oversees the LTFRB, to stick to its performance guarantees as stipulated in the 2014 budget: to inspect and audit 100,000 land transportation franchise owners.

Proposed solutions

Recto suggested various ways of making roads and the public transport system safer:

• Build a national road crash database system 
• Adopt road design standards that will incorporate sidewalks and mandatory bicycle and motorcycle lanes
• Implement the Anti-Drunk Driving Law or RA 10586
• Urge local government units (LGUs) to pass complementary ordinances against drunk driving, the use of cellphone while driving, among others
• Identify accident-prone areas and adopt countermeasures for these so-called “black spots”
• Grant fiscal incentives and tax breaks to vehicles that provide high level of protection
• Use a percentage of license fees for driver training and promotion of road safety. If 4,537,720 Non-Professional Driver’s License will be issued this year for P585 each, a total of P2.66 billion will be collected
• Urge LGUs to increase road safety standards for tricycles but without increasing regulatory fees
• Sustain anti-overloading and overspeeding campaigns
• Introduce “headlights on while engine is running” rule for motorcycles
• Continue the professionalization program for law enforcers. Eliminate “kotong’ in enforcement
• Increase patrol visibility and deployment of law enforcement officers
• Create traffic discipline zones
• Train law enforcement units on first aid and basic life support system
• Establish a single emergency call number nationwide
• Establish emergency response units
• Set up trauma units in all tertiary hospitals

On Monday, Malacañang announced that President Benigno Aquino III will be calling heads of concerned agencies to a meeting because he wants to know why road accidents are happening despite the laws and regulations that are in place. – Rappler.com