THE United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety on Monday said education and law enforcement are crucial in lessening road accidents in the Philippines as accidents in the country remain deadly.
Jean Todt said the Philippines should prioritize educating people about road safety and strengthening law enforcement to lessen such accidents.
According to the World Health Organization, road traffic deaths in the country increased to 11,096 in 2021, compared to 8,746 in 2020.
“You need to educate young people… it is very important to improve the present and to build the future,” the former president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) said at a news briefing.
“[Motorbike accidents are] worse in countries like Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, and India, but that doesn’t mean that it’s good enough here,” he added.
The former Formula 1 chief suggested that every new motorbike sold should come with two UN-standard helmets to help save lives as motorbikes often have a driver and a passenger.
“I’ve faced situations where I see four or five people on one motorbike because of poor public transportation and you have the four or five people that have a mask and no helmet,” he said.
“The private sector, car manufacturers, motorbike manufacturers, they can help by applying better vehicle regulation standards [and] by supplying helmets when you sell a motorbike helmet with the proper UN standard,” he told BusinessWorld on the sidelines of the news briefing.
Transportation Secretary Jaime J. Bautista said the government plans to organize a task force with other cabinet secretaries to implement and monitor the Road Safety Action Plan 2023 to 2028, launched in May 2023.
“Law enforcement is the harder part. That’s more of a problem,” Mr. Bautista told reporters on the sidelines of the briefing in mixed English and Filipino.
“We know what to do, but sometimes we are not able to implement this, so perhaps we really need to constantly remind our enforcers to implement the rules and regulations, especially in traffic,” he added.
He noted that while helmets are required when riding a motorbike, many areas in the provinces opt not to use them as law enforcement is not strict in apprehending lawbreakers. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana
