Philippine Road Safety Action Plan launched

MANILA, Philippines - A workshop on enhancing the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan (PRSAP) in alignment with the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011 –– 2020 was held in the Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay City last March 31 to April 1, 2011. The workshop was organized by the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) in partnership with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), and was facilitated by the University of the Philippines –– National Center for Transportation Studies (UP-NCTS). The workshop was participated in by more than 100 representatives from national government agencies, international road safety partners, the private sector, civil society organizations and the academe. The participants provided comments and recommendations on the draft PRSAP, and formulated short term plans and programs on road safety for implementation in 2011-2013.

The workshop started with the welcome remarks by Assistant Secretary Dante M. Lantin, DOTC and opening statements by Rebecca Huang and Thanattaporn Rasamit from the UNESCAP Transport Division who emphasized the great cost and loss countries are experiencing due to road traffic injuries. Road traffic injuries is becoming a leading cause of death around the globe, and the top cause of death for people between the ages of 15-29 years old. By 2030, it is projected to be the fifth leading cause of death (for all ages), ahead of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis. Thus, the UN proclaimed the period 2011-2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety. The overall goal of this program is to stabilize and then reduce the forecasted level of road traffic fatalities around the world by increasing activities at the national, regional and global levels.

The workshop also featured a poignant speech delivered by the former governor of the Province of Bulacan Roberto Pagdanganan on their family’s experience of losing a son to a road crash in 2007. He expressed his assessment that the road crash could have been prevented and commended the efforts on enhancing road safety of those participating in the workshop.

Greg Smith, the Asia Pacific Regional Director of the International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), presented on their program . iRAP is a registered charity dedicated to saving lives through safer roads, and works in partnership with government and non-government organizations to inspect high-risk roads and develop Star Ratings and Safer Roads Investment Plans. Dir. Melvin B. Navarro, Director of the Planning Service of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) provided a briefing of iRAP in the Philippines and announced that the vehicle equipped with state-of-the-art equipment that will be used in inspecting over 3,000 kilometers of roads is arriving soon. Philippine roads to be surveyed and evaluated include those classified under Asian Highway 26 (AH-26) and selected national roads such as Commonwealth Avenue and EDSA. Surveys will be conducted starting April this year.