By Perfecto T. Raymundo, Jr.
QUEZON CITY — The Department of Health (DOH) in collaboration with UNICEF on Wednesday (March 19) held the 2025 Road Safety Summit stressing the critical need for collective action to address the rising incidence of road traffic injuries among children as a significant public health concern.
During the summit in Seda Vertis North,
Xavier Foulquier, OIC-Deputy
Representative-Programs of UNICEF Philippines, said “Every child has the right to a safe and healthy environment.”
“Children must be taught about road safety,” he added.
Health Sec. Teodoro Herbosa acknowledged the presence and participation of DepEd, DOTr, DPWH, PSA and other stakeholders, among others.
Herbosa said that road safety is not only a public issue, but it is also an emergency. .
Herbosa cited that there are 12,690 deaths yearly due to road traffic crashes.
The DOH has prioritized road safety as one of its eight priority programs.
Herbosa cited the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan of 2023-2028 which is aligned with the World Action Plan on Road Safety.
“The summit serves as a call to our stakeholders to foster road safety to build safer roads for our children,” he said.
“We resolve that the roads are safe. Sapagkat ang bawat bata ay mahalaga sa Bagong Pilipinas,” he added.
Dr. John Juliard Go, World Health Organization Technical Officer, said that there were 1.19 million deaths due to road accidents in 2023.
92% of all deaths occur in low and middle income countries.
More than half of all road traffic fatalities are vulnerable road users.
Between 20 and 50 million victims suffer from non-fatal injuries.
The damage cost of road traffic accidents is pegged at 3% of the GDP of these countries.
The Global Plan on Road Safety is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
There are signs of progress such that there was a 5% reduction in road traffic deaths in 2010.
Challenges persist on multimodal transport systems and safer roads. Challenges persist on vehicle safety such that only 35 countries have legislation mandating road safety.
Some 50 countries have succeeded to further reduce the road traffic deaths in 2010 and 2011.
Dr. Angelito Umali, UNICEF Health Officer,
said that road traffic accidents is the no. 1 cause of death for children aged 0-19 in 2019.
“Overtime, there has been an increase in the use of motorized vehicles which is not only occurring in low income countries, but also in middle income countries such as the Philippines,” Dr. Umali said.
“Apart from Tuberculosis, road traffic accident is the leading cause of death of children in 2019,” he added.
“We need changes on behavior across regions for safer roads for children,” Dr. Umali said.
Marjorie B. Villaver, from the Vital Statistics of PSA, cited SDG Target 3.6 such that by 2030, halve the number of global deaths and injuries due to road traffic accidents.
There were a total of 14,000 deaths which is less than 10% of the total registered deaths from 2014-2023.
In 2023, there were 13,101 deaths due to road traffic accidents where victims are predominantly male.
Among other provinces, the road traffic accidents occurred in Pangasinan with 573, and Batangas with 482.
Dr. Vito G. Roque Jr., from the DOH, cited 37,574 as the total number of reported cases of traffic-related injury in the Philippines in 2024.
Majority of the Road Traffic-related Injury Cases in 2024 include the youth population aged 15-30 and focusing on male population.
Central Visayas reported the most number of cases and occurred between 4pm to 8pm or “rush hour”.
Only 6.8% of the total reported cases involved safety gadgets.
Asec. Dioscoro T. Reyes, from DOTr, cited the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan 2023-2028 to improve road safety in the country and reduce road traffic-related injuries.
The Pillars of the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan 2023-2028 are Safer Roads, including the EDSA Busway Project and the Cebu Bus Rapid Transport Project, Safer Vehicles, with enhanced vehicle registration and inspection systems, and Post-Crash Response, which focuses on hospitalization and rehabilitation for victims of road crashes.
The Public Transport Utility Modernization Program (PTMP) which is the former PUVMP, Davao Public Transport Modernization Project (DPTMP), Active Transport Program, and EDSA Greenways Project to encourage more people to walk, were also cited.
