Philippines: the five pillars of the Road safety action plan

In the Philippines, the number of road fatalities has steadily increased since 2006, whereas the authorities want to see it reduced considerably by 2020.

 

The latest statistics have shown that since 2010, the number of road fatalities has never been less than 8000. Most of the victims are young, and especially children: 500 die each year following a road accident.

 

It is for this reason that the Filipino government launched a road safety action plan in 2011 to halve the number of road fatalities by 2020. This plan is based around five pillars each of which is designed to help create a safer road environment:

 

• Improve road safety management
  • Develop policies and implement road safety programmes
  • Institutionalise road safety units in key government agencies and local government authorities
  • Pass road safety enabling laws, ordinances, and regulations
  • Lobby for legislative and executive action to allocate funding for road safety

 

• Safer roads
  • Improve safety standards in hazardous locations
  • Adopt road design standards
  • Provide bike lane facilities
  • Conduct road safety audits

 

• Safer vehicles
  • Implement a Motor Vehicle Inspection System (MVIS), and a National Vehicle Maintenance Programme and Standards

 

• Safer road users
  • Road safety education for vulnerable road users through public awareness campaigns
  • Conduct road safety forums and workshops
  • Re-train drivers
  • Sustain the enforcement on traffic laws especially on anti-overloading and speeding
  • Prohibit bicycles and tricycles and unauthorized modes of transport on national roads

 

• Improve trauma care and rehabilitation
  • Identify and set up trauma units in all tertiary hospitals
  • Train trauma centre personnel and provide First Aid and Basic Life Support training

 

According to Dr Shin Young-soo, Regional Director for the Western Pacific of the World Health Organization (WHO), there is an urgent need to fast-track the implementation of road safety policies to meet the development target of cutting road traffic deaths and injuries.

Remember that this year's United Nations Global Road Safety Week focuses on the need to slow down, which the WHO says is one of the simplest ways to avoid road crashes.

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More information:

• Rappler – The 5 pillars behind the Philippines’ road safety action plan
• WHO – Philippine Road Safety Action Plan