DOTC: Road design matters

TAGBILARAN CITY, , Philippines  — Without safety interventions, road casualties in the country might reach 300,595 by 2020, or an average growth rate of 14.6 percent from the record of 12,620 in 2010.

Dante Lantin, assistant secretary for administrative and comptrollership of the Department of Transportation and Communications, issued the warning during the Stakeholder’s Road Safety Summit on July 19 to 20 at the MetroCentre Hotel in this city.

DOTC, in partnership with Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), has been conducting Road Safety Workshops for PRMF partner provinces with the UP-National Center for Transportation Studies.

In his presentation on the one-year progress update of the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan 2011-2020 during the road safety summit here, Lantin reported that road traffic accident is projected to rank third in the 13 leading causes of deaths in the global scenario; while it ranked 9th in the 1990 record.              

In the Philippines, road accident casualties increased from 12,620 in year 2010 to 14,462 last year, and are projected to increase further to 16,574 this year, resulting in a running total of 43,656 by end of this year.

At the average growth rate of 14.6 percent annually, the running total is projected to reach 300,595 by end of 2020, Lantin said.

World statistics showed that there have been 1.3 million deaths from road accidents or 3,561 per day, and in the Philippines, the 12,620 road accident casualties in 2010 had been recorded at a rate of 34 persons killed per day.

Driver’s error had been tagged as the major cause of the accidents—73 percent in 2010 and 79 percent in 2011; mechanical defect, as the cause, comprised 18 percent in 2010 and 11 percent in 2011; and at least nine percent of the accidents in 2010 and 10 percent in 2011 have been blamed on road condition.

In response, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution on March 2, 2010, proclaiming 2011-2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety with the goal of stabilizing and then reducing global road fatalities by 2020.

On May 11 last year, the UN launched the Decade of Action for Road Safety worldwide, a “rolling launch” beginning in New Zealand, travelling through every international time zone and ending in Mexico.

Lantin also reported that UN released the Yellow Road Safety Tag to be the global symbol of road safety and of the UN’s concern about the issue of solidarity with the millions killed and injured each year on the road.

The Philippine Road Safety Action Plan has been intended to reduce by 50 percent, the growth rate of fatalities due to road crashes by 2020, he said.

Lantin added that this can be done by improving road safety management, constructing safer roads, having safer vehicles and safer road users, and improving trauma care and rehabilitation.