Who protects the pedestrians?

On 24 June, 90-year-old Erlinda Santos Tagle was on her way to serve at St. Augustine Church in San Fernando, Pampanga, when a vehicle struck her while she was crossing the pedestrian lane outside the church.

According to police records reported by the DAILY TRIBUNE, the accident happened at around 5:10 a.m. Tagle suffered severe injuries and was pronounced dead at the hospital about 25 minutes later.

She was using a designated crossing, where motorists are generally required to yield to pedestrians under Republic Act 4136, yet the protection offered by those painted lines ultimately depended on the approaching driver stopping.

The accident also raises another question about vehicle safety because the height and shape of the front end can influence how badly someone is injured when struck.

Research by the American Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) found that vehicles with hoods higher than 40 inches were about 45 percent more likely to cause pedestrian fatalities than vehicles with lower, sloping front ends.

A separate IIHS study estimated that at approximately 48 kilometers per hour, a pedestrian struck by a midsize pickup faced a 76 percent risk of serious injury, compared with 37 percent when struck by a midsize car.

At around 16 kilometers per hour, the estimated risk dropped to approximately five percent for either vehicle.

The difference helps explain why Philippine traffic law generally limits vehicles to 20 kilometers per hour in crowded streets and near schools, where motorists may encounter people crossing at close distances.

On 18 September, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released its first pedestrian protection assessments for 2027-model vehicles. The agency announced that 102 models from 10 manufacturers met its new criteria.

Unlike the familiar five-star ratings, these assessments use a pass-or-fail system that examines how a vehicle’s front end affects injuries during a collision.

Technicians propel instruments shaped like adult and child heads against the hood and windshield area, while separate devices strike the bumper and front edge of the hood to measure forces that could injure a pedestrian’s legs.

The New Car Assessment Program for Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN NCAP) already evaluates pedestrian protection, and its results are relevant to vehicles sold in the Philippines.

Erlinda Santos Tagle was already on a marked pedestrian lane outside St. Augustine Church when she was struck.

Vehicle safety technology can help prevent collisions or reduce injuries, but in her case, yielding at the crossing could have prevented the tragedy.