Law advocacy group remembers children victims of road crashes

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

A Pasig City-based group on Sunday urged the government to take measures to make streets safer for children, in remembering the 1,670 youngsters who die from road crashes every year.

Public interest law group ImagineLaw on Sunday told the government that the public should be alarmed that 1,670 Filipinos aged between 0 to 19 years old) are killed by road crashes every year, citing data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In particular, last September alone, two 4-year-olds in Malate, Manila and South Cotabato were killed, the first being a girl hit by a sports utility vehicle, and the other being a boy who died with his father in a road crash.

ImagineLaw led the unveiling of a mural at the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s (MMDA) Children’s Road Safety Park in celebrating the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.

This was developed in partnership with the MMDA, the Department of Transportation, the Philippine Legislators’ Committee on Population and Development, Metro Pacific Tollways Corporation, Move As One Coalition, and AltMobility.

Atty. Daphne Marcelo, ImagineLaw’s Project Manager for Road Safety, said that injuries and deaths due to road crashes are preventable when the government enforces traffic laws and updates its policies, in partnership with all stakeholders.

“We are here because we believe that we need to make our streets and roads safer for the children. Playing in the streets and going to schools should not be considered as death sentences, but this is what is happening. Our children continue to die on our roads,” said Marcelo.

Marcelo added that parents alone should not shoulder the burden of their children’s deaths due to road crashes, saying that aside from them and teachers when the children are at school, government and community leaders have a bigger part to play.

“Blaming parents alone for child road deaths and injuries is unproductive. It can even be said to be misguided and myopic, and because of that we must understand that making safer roads and streets is a shared responsibility by everyone,” she said.

Robert Siy, co-convenor of the Move As One Coalition, a transport and mobility advocacy group, said that these figures show the need for them to continue on their road safety campaign, until “the number of Filipinos killed or injured from road crashes down to zero.”

“Our streets are far too hostile for a child to even simply exercise their right to play,” said Nicole Anne Cobarrubias of AltMobility, another advocacy group. “In our commitment to building safer streets, we will be more firm in prioritizing children’s safety above motor vehicles,” she also said.

Dr. Angel Umali, Program Officer of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for n Child Road Traffic Injury Prevention, also said that it was the “right day” to call for greater focus on children’s road safety, citing the 33^rd anniversary of the UN’s adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on November 20, 1989.

“Road safety is one of the rights of our children, to live up until their growth. A growing child has to be given ample protection and security. They have the right to their health, the protection, their education, and to participate in activities which will help them be better,” said Umali.

“It is important in our advocacies, our programs and policies, to ensure the safe journeys of our children, whether going to school, or going back home,” he added.

The activity also saw the launch of the Youth Alliance for Road Discipline, an organization of youths with children’s road safety as their primary advocacy.

Hannah Estepa, a 16-year-old visually-impaired advocate from the alliance, said that there must be extra pedestrian-friendly lanes and railings for children.

“I cannot go out of the house alone because I am afraid that I might get hit by a motor vehicle. I will not have parents to guide me for the rest of my life. That is why I wish for myself to be able to travel alone, because the cane I am holding right now will be my only guide in the future,” said Estepa.

“Youth like me, including normal children, are facing danger when crossing the road because it is not safe. There are vehicles that just speed up when driving, even if kids cross the pedestrian lane. It is not only us who suffer, but adults as well. In my view, it is time for our roads to be safe,” she added.