START ‘EM YOUNG: Gov’t educates kids on traffic, road safety

Children are the most vulnerable on the roads and most prone to road traffic injuries -- if not death.

Unlike adults, children are limitedly capable both physically and socially, making them less equipped to cope with injuries, which could result in life-long disability.

Their impulsiveness is also a factor contributing to the rising number of road crashes.

To safeguard innocent children from early death, the government, through the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, built a safe space for youngsters dubbed Children's Road Safety Park (CRSP), located at Adriatico Street in Quirino Avenue Manila, just across from Manila Zoo.

CRSP is an educational park where children can learn and observe traffic rules and regulations and their importance while gaining a deep understanding of road safety in a controlled setting.

The park has child-sized versions of infrastructure such as bike lanes, a rotunda, pedestrian crossings, intersections, road signs, footbridges, sidewalks with curbs, a drainage system, and miniature building structures such as schools, offices, gas stations, and a hospital, among others.

Aside from the CSRP, several initiatives were enforced to protect children from road crashes.

The most recent was a pact forged by the Department of Transportation (DoTR) in partnership with other national agencies, which established the National Coalition for Child Road Traffic Injury Prevention. This coalition is intended to lessen road traffic accidents involving children, particularly those who commute to and from school.

In many instances, road accidents happen right at the zebra crossings in front of schools.

In December last year, the DoTR also enforced various road safety programs to reduce traffic fatalities by at least 35 percent by the year 2028.

The strategic plan outlined includes road safety education, stringent and extensive requirements for issuing driver's licenses and vehicle plates, ensuring the roadworthiness of motor vehicles, and enforcing traffic laws by the Land Transportation Office.

Fatalities due to road traffic accidents involving children are on the rise globally and remain to be a cause for concern.

The roads, vehicles, and human error are among the primary factors in traffic events for road accidents.

A 2023 report from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death worldwide for children aged five to 14 years old and young adults aged 15 to 29 years old.

WHO defines road traffic injury as more lethal than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and diarrheal disease.

Every year, approximately 1.19 million people die owing to road traffic crashes, according to WHO.

The alarming number prompted various initiatives to be launched locally and globally to prevent fatal road traffic accidents.

Human aid organization, United Nations Children’s Fund, has been promoting the safety of children on the road through its Child Road Traffic Injury Prevention (CRTIP) program.

The CRTIP, which targets high-risk schools in the country, aims to make roads safer for children by developing models for road safety programs, strengthening data collection and analysis, refining road safety laws and policies, enhancing multisectoral action for children's safety, and improving road safety education for school children.

In summary, it seeks to contribute to the international objective of reducing road traffic deaths, as embodied in the Philippine Road Safety Action Plan (2017-2022).

According to road safety advocates, this type of deadly accident among children could have been avoided if only strategic safety measures had been in place, such as infrastructure designed to protect all road users, education of motorists on the speed limit, and strict enforcement.

They assert that crafting policies and awareness campaigns and not locking children out of roads should be the top priority to end sudden death among children.

In 2011, a proposal to include road safety education in elementary and high school curricula was filed in the House of Representatives due to the alarming number of road accidents in the country each year.