An increase in children’s pedestrian safety knowledge was recorded under the Walk this Way child pedestrian program, a joint initiative between Safe Kids Philippines, FedEx and the Cebu Task Force on Street Children.
The Walk this Way program teaches Filipino children about road safety and helps them change their walking behavior and environment.
Since its launching in 2006, the program has already reached out to 9,000 elementary pupils in 15 public schools around Cebu City and provided them with safety tips, lessons on understanding traffic signs and other basic things that they have to know.
The increase in awareness is based on questionnaires submitted after lectures.
Dr. Rafael Consunji, president of SKP, said that of their 3,000 children respondents, 30 percent have already been victims of road injuries.
Almost a third of them were reportedly not in the pedestrian lane when the accident took place.
Based on their study, 48 percent of the victims were hit by bicycles, 24 percent by motorcycles, 8 percent by jeepneys, 7 percent by cars and 4 percent by vans and 9 percent by other causes. — Jessica Ann Pareja