Crash driving is on you

MANILA, Philippines — Golf legend Tiger Woods shocked the world with a car crash incident, which happened in California in February. The 15-time champion had to be rescued from the wreck of his car after it flipped several times, hit a tree and landed on its side off the roadway. Woods survived the crash and is now recovering after inflicting several injuries.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said Woods was “driving at a speed unsafe for the road conditions.” In addition, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Captain James Powers said that the accident happened due to the driver’s error.

The car’s black box data recorder showed that Woods engaged the accelerator and never applied the brake during the incident. Woods may have mistakenly hit the wrong pedal while trying to control the car. 

Another high-profile road crash incident was recorded in November 2013 and involved Fast and Furious star, Paul Walker. According to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Commander Mike Parker, “unsafe speed for the roadway conditions” caused Walker’s Porsche to crash a power pole and several trees.

Walker’s car was speeding between 80 to 93 miles per hour along the Santa Clarita, California roads, which has a posted speed limit of only 45 mph. The 40-year-old actor did not survive the crash. 

In the Philippines, several showbiz personalities, such as critically acclaimed director Lino Brocka, actors Jay Ilagan and AJ Perez and popular balladeer, Ric Segreto, met their untimely deaths due to vehicular accidents. Brocka and Perez, figured in separate car mishaps, while Ilagan and Segreto were victims of motorcycle crashes. 

9 in 10 road crashes are due to driver’s error

A study released by the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stated that 94% or 9 in 10 incidents of road crashes are due to driver’s error. Forty-one percent of these driver-related incidents were due to distracted driving followed by overspeeding at 33%. 

Distracted driving is a specific type of inattention that occurs when drivers divert their attention from driving to focus on other activities. Distractions may be physical or emotional in nature and are often caused by cellular phone usage, physical pain, sleeplessness, fatigue and even emotional stress. 

Distraction can also be linked to impaired driving caused by substance abuse and alcohol intoxication. An NHTSA study shows that drug prevalence is on the rise among drivers, particularly for males even during the COVID-19 pandemic. NHTSA added that at least 28 people in the US die every day due to drunk driving – that is one person every 52 minutes. 

A separate study conducted by the Virginia Tech Transport Institute cited that certain driver performance errors, including sudden or improper braking or stopping, and being unfamiliar with a vehicle or roadway, increased the risk of crashing by hundreds of times.  

Aside from driver’s error, environmental and road conditions also play a huge factor in road crashes. An average of 25,000 road accidents were caused by slippery roads.

Weather occurrences such as rain, fog and snow, and poor road conditions including bad lighting, absence of proper signages and damaged roadways could not be discounted. However, it can be noted that only 2% of accidents were due to vehicle or mechanical failures. 

Road crashes remain a concern worldwide 

Driver error is also a problem among other developed and developing countries like Australia, Canada, Thailand and the Philippines. Canada, for instance, has the same primary causes of road accidents as that of the US. 

According to the Traffic Research Injury Foundation of Canada (TRIF), road crashes are the leading cause of death of Canadians under 40 years old. More than 90% of these crashes can be attributed to human error or conditions. Human error resulted from aggressive driving such as driving through a red light, disobeying road signs, overspeeding and even taking driving risks for fun. 

Meanwhile, in a developing country like the Philippines, the main cause of road accidents is human error. Data from the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) also revealed that driver’s behavior, specifically bad turning or changing direction without using the vehicle’s signal was the leading cause of road accidents. 

If so, it can easily be argued that the reported 12,000 road accident-related deaths could have been prevented had drivers only been more careful, responsible, and in many cases, simply not drunk, high or asleep. Only 4% of the total accidents were related to vehicle or mechanical failure. 

Despite the strict quarantine measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Metro Manila Reporting Analysis and System (MMARAS) still reported a total of 65,032 accidents in the country’s main region in 2020. This is equivalent to an average of 178 road crashes incidents daily. 

There was also a notable increase in the number of fatalities involving motorcycles, which became one of the top modes of transportation during the pandemic. Data showed that there was a 3.5% increase in this year’s cases from last year’s total of 221. 

The Department of Health included road accidents as one of the top 10 leading causes of death in the Philippines, particularly among males. In its 2018 public health report, it showed that over 10,000 Filipino males died due to traffic accidents. 

Vehicle inspection not tantamount to road safety  

With the increasing global rates of road crashes each year mainly caused by driver error and not by vehicle conditions, WHO said that road safety can be achieved through a comprehensive, holistic approach that will involve multiple sectors in developing policies and long-term solutions.

Road safety cannot be achieved by imposing a piece-meal, half-baked policy that only solves one aspect of the problem, such as comprehensive vehicle inspections. 

In its Global Decade Plan for Road Safety, WHO advocates the Safe System approach, which aims to develop a road transport system that can better accommodate human error and take into consideration the vulnerability of the human body.

WHO also stressed that governments should consider road safety as a health and development issue rather than a simple mobility concern. 

WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan stressed the importance of political will in ensuring appropriate road safety legislation and stringent enforcement of laws. She added that failure to solve road safety issues will continuously result in grieving families and communities, and burdened health systems.

But the needed stronger policy is perhaps more in areas of driver education and traffic enforcement, and not really in the area of an annually mandated inspection of the motor vehicle.  

Over the years, global data has clearly shown that a driver’s wrong disposition - intentional or unintentional, accelerates road crashes and traffic-related deaths. This issue goes beyond transportation or mobility and should be taken holistically, specifically through the lens of health and safety.

While ensuring a well-maintained motor vehicle is good, drivers’ discipline and well-being and quality road infrastructure must also be prioritized. Because in the end, what’s the use of a well-conditioned vehicle if the driver is always vulnerable to a crash?

So just because the public will pay extra fees for the so-called vehicle inspection system being re-introduced by the Philippine transportation department, are we supposed to suddenly feel safer on the streets? Do we suddenly believe people will be less distracted, be less sleepy, or be less drunk while driving?