In a multi-sectoral study conducted on children’s welfare in the Philippines, it has been revealed that child death rates caused by accidental injuries have tripled in the last 30 years, and was recorded to be the third leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 14. From this data, road accidents were recorded to be the second leading cause of death among children at 5.85 per 100,000 according to the 2003 Philippine National Injury Survey.
In a similar study released by SAFE KIDS Philippines, a global non-governmental organization dedicated to the prevention of unintentional injuries to children, also shows that at least 20 million children are at risk of dying or being injured in road accidents every year. It says 35,000 Filipino children get injured or die in road accidents each year or about 263 a day. It was estimated that around 3,000 children who had suffered injuries showed that 56 percent of them were hurt in road accidents primarily involving bicycles, motor vehicles, and pedicabs. The worst part is, children mostly belonging to poor families were the biggest victims.
It is evident that road condition in the Philippines are too much hazardous specially for thousands of kid pedestrians roaming the metropolis everyday. Such accidents can possibly be attributed to numbers of factors like vehicle over-speeding, undisciplined drivers, road works obstructions, lack of pedestrian lanes, sidewalks given to garbage and vendors, laxity in the enforcement of road safety rules, and lack of proper public education on road safety measures.
The government should not wait for these unnecessary and preventable accidents happening in the roads to escalate further. Considering that road accident is one of the prevalent cause of serious injuries of children, the authorities should waste no time to put in place policy measures to address the safety issues of our young citizens.
Needless to say, additional road safety regulations should be strictly enforced to all motorists, pedestrians and all stakeholders to minimize if not totally eliminate accidents involving children by way of instituting a national policy for road accident prevention and safety awareness scheme for children. Aside from this, all local government units starting from the provincial level down to the barangay, should inculcate a mandatory awareness program on road and pedestrian traffic safety precautions to educate parents and children alike in every household.
A call should likewise be made to different sectors in the society to have concerted efforts to ensure the success of this advocacy for our children and to remind our legislators to work on the immediate passage of pending measures in Congress which include among others:
Requiring mandatory compliance by motorists of private and public vehicles to use hands-free devices while driving
- Imposition of Penalty for engaging in a call using cellphone while the motor vehicle is in motion without a hands-free device.
- Implementation of nationwide information campaign on the safety and health value of the use of cellular phone while driving.
Requiring the mandatory compliance by motorists of private and public vehicles to appropriately restraint all child occupants of motor vehicles
- Develop and implement a safety rating program for child restraint to provide practicable, readily understandable, and timely information to parents for use in making informed decisions in the purchase of child restraints.
- Will require child passenger between the age 6 months to 6 years to provide restraint to a child while in transit using lap and shoulder assembly.
Prescribing school bus safety standards
- To prescribe proficiency standards for school bus drivers and demonstrate such proficiency to the employer, licensing agency and agency regulating proficiency standards.
-To prescribe regulations requiring seatbelts for each seating position in any newly manufactured school bus.
- To implement a rulemaking process to require a decrease in the flammability of the materials used in the construction of the interiors of school buses.
Penalizing the act of leaving children unattended in motor vehicles under certain circumstances
- Making it unlawful for a parent or guardian to leave a child aged 8 years and younger to be left inside a vehicle without supervision of an adult who is over 14 years of age.
- Imposition of Penalty for non-compliance:
Protecting the public by requiring the registration, annual inspection and marking of common carriers used on land, and the wearing of uniforms of their drivers and conductors for purpose of identification and accountability
- Imposition of markings on every common carriers used on land to be displayed inside, outside and at the back of the vehicle the following information:
1) The city or municipality and province of its place of business
2) Plate number of the vehicle
3) A route zone number, alphanumeric body code
- The marking shall be made as requirement for grant of franchise and license.
- Every driver or conductor of the covered common carrier is required to wear a uniform which shall legibly show his and the owner’ name.
Imposing higher penalties for vehicular accident
- Person committing any act resulting in physical injuries or death or damage to property on account of a vehicular accident, shall suffer the penalty of prision mayor in its maximum to death.
- If the accident resulted in damage to the property, the penalty shall be a fine equal to the value of the damages to three times of such value, but in no case be less than P10,000.
Requiring the use of safety devices for children riding in motor vehicles
- Making it unlawful for any driver of a motor vehicle to travel which children on board without providing a safety device as approved by the LTO for such children. Non-compliance of this act shall be penalized by a fine of P1,000 or imprisonment of not more than 30 days. The license of such driver shall also be revoked upon final conviction for two (2) violations.
Increasing the penalty for non-compliance of the Mandatory use of Seat Belt Devices, and Requiring Vehicle Manufacturers to Install Seat Belt Devices in All Their Manufactured Vehicles
For failure to wear the prescribed seatbelts:
- First Violation : an increase from P100 - P1,000 fine to P300 – P1,500
- Second Violation: an increase from P200 – P2,000 fine to P500 – P2,000
- Third and succeeding: an increase from P500 – P5,000 fine to P1,000 – P5,000
For Failure to post signage instructing passenger to wear seatbelts:
- an increase from P300 – P3,000 fine to P500 – P5,000
For manufacturer and assembler who Fail to install seatbelts devices
- 1st Violation : an increase from P5,000 - P10,000 fine to P6,000 – P10,000 and suspension of license for a period of one year
- 2nd Violation : an increase from P10,000 – P20,000 fine to P12,000 – P20,000 and suspension of license for a period of three years
- 3rd and succeeding: an increase from P20,000 – P50,000 fine to P25,000
-P50,000 and suspension of license for a period of five years
Amendments to the Seatbelts law
Prohibition of children under 8 years of age to sit in the front seat unless the child is taller than four feet an nine inches. Use of childseat or restrainsts shall be made mandatory for children riding on the backseat without the company of an adult. Vehicle without a backrow seats may allow children under 8 years of age to sit in the front seat, provided that the seat is equipped with an internationally accepted industry standards restrain system.
Improving the safety of non-motorized transportation, including pedestrian and bicycle safety, in the vicinity of schools
Establishment of Safe Routes to school program by the DOTC
Appropriate amount for Infrastructure related projects relevant to improve the ability of students to walk and bicycle to school. The amount shall likewise be appropriated for public awareness campaign, traffic education, and other activities to promote walking and cycling to school.
Providing for a highway safety program in the Philippines
- Implementation of a program by the DOTC which corrects or improves hazardous road location or feature or address a highway safety problem in the country through identification and analyzing if highway safety problems and opportunities.
Prohibiting the riding or transporting of children 7 yeas old and below on motorcycles along highways
- First Violation : fine of P3,000.00
- Second Violation: fine of P5,000.00
- Third and succeeding: fine of P10,000.00
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