Not by accident

By Marifi Jara

Fact #1: More than 1,000 children and young adults under the age of 25 years are killed in road traffic crashes every day. Road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death for 10-24 year olds.

Fact #2: Most young people killed or injured in road crashes in low- and middle-income countries are pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists or users of public transport. In high-income countries most young victims are novice drivers.

These facts come directly from the World Health Organization, which, last week spearheaded the First United Nations Global Road Safety Week with a focus on young road users.

“Road safety will not happen by accident,” said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message for the event.

“Because prevention measures require political will and financial investments in efforts targeting young people, decisions to improve road safety need to be made at the highest levels of    Government. Beyond  government ministries of transport, health and education, many others have a role to play: parents and guardians, educators, community and business leaders, automobile associations, insurers and vehicle manufacturers, celebrities and the media, survivors of road traffic crashes and their families,” he said.

In short, he’s saying we are all stakeholders in this matter.

But around here, how many decent drivers stop at pedestrian lanes to give way to people crossing the street?

As  for the pedestrians, how many are informed enough not to cross when the traffic  light is green for the vehicles that will intersect their direction? Or that they should always walk against the vehicular traffic flow so they can see what’s coming, especially in this country where proper sidewalks seem to be a luxury as they are very hard to come by.

How many motorbike riders wear proper helmets? I am especially appalled at the sight of adults driving around with a child (more than one sometimes!) and the adult is wearing a helmet while the kid is totally unprotected!

Then there is of course the perennial issue of drunk-driving. And over the last decade,   mobile phones have proven to be an added driving risk.

And jeepneys and tricycles, aahh, they’re my worst road nightmare. Why do they always seem to be shooting in and out   from all directions without warning? And why do so many of them don’t turn on   their head and tail lights at night? Local governments and the LTO should strictly implement an educational program on road safety tied to the issuance of a public utility vehicle franchise, much like when getting a driver’s license. Then again, we all know how easy it is to simply make lagay and skip the educational seminar. Laws and policies are useless without proper implementation.

And I have to make special mention of the bus drivers from hell. One of the scariest moments of my life happened on a beautiful Monday mid-morning just two weeks ago as I was unhurriedly cruising through the beautiful countryside highway in the western side of Pangasinan en route to Manila with my younger brother on the passenger’s seat. A tricycle was up ahead on the other half of the road going opposite my direction and a mini public bus was behind it. All of a sudden, without any warning at all, the bus driver pulled out of his lane and hogged my lane to overtake the tricycle at racing speed with barely 50 meters to spare between us! I stepped on my brake in time but I could never forget the devilish look on the driver’s face as he pulled off his evil driving behavior. I am also thankful that the two vehicles behind me were not trailing too close and the drivers were alert enough as well to stop in time. Otherwise, there surely would have been a big pool of blood on that stretch of the highway that day. I looked at my side mirror before driving on again, hoping to catch the plate number of the bus. But the devil has rapidly sped off.

We often brush aside statistics, even if they are so telling, until we actually become part of the numbers. Remember, that’s more than 1,000 children and young adults worldwide dying everyday from road accidents. We need to get our acts together on this.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/roots/)

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