Findings from these datasets revealed that children aged 5 to 7 years old and young adults aged 20 to 24 were the most vulnerable to road injuries or crashes. The motorcycle, the powered two-wheel (PTW) type, came out as the most common vehicle involved in road accidents.

November 29, 2022 — Tackling the health and road safety of motorcyclists, TV UP aired another episode of the Stop COVID Deaths Webinar Series  entitled “Nagmomotor, Ligtas Ka Ba?” on October 21. 

Dr. Teodoro Herbosa, chairperson of PGH Department of Emergency Medicine called for continuous improvements in road design and vehicles, enhancement of laws and law enforcement, and provision of timely, life-saving emergency care for the injured as he reiterated this growing public health issue in the country. According to statistics, low and middle income countries are the most vulnerable in road injury and the Philippines was spotted with more cases in the Asia Pacific. 

Herbosa also detailed the findings of his study on the health burden of road crash injuries in the Philippines when his team developed a road safety index and a new Philippine trauma scoring system after analyzing several untapped road data.  

These are  the  Integrated Surgical Information System (ISIS) database from the Philippine General Hospital and Online Electronic Injury Surveillance System (ONEISS) database from the Department of Health that identify where road injuries come from in the Philippines;  Advancing Health Through Evidence-Assisted Decision (AHEAD) database funded by the study; and Metro Manila Accident Reporting and Analysis System (MMARAS) database from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority. 

Findings from these datasets revealed that children aged 5 to 7 years old and young adults aged 20 to 24 were the most vulnerable to road injuries or crashes. The motorcycle, the powered two-wheel (PTW) type, came out as the most common vehicle involved in road accidents. With the majority of cases happening in Quezon City in Metro Manila and Davao City in Mindanao, Herbosa impelled urban cities’ governance to level up their road engineering for preventive and not reactionary response to this health issue. 

He also warned the audience to note the risk factors for road crashes that include alcohol and drug intake, fatigue, non-use of seatbelt or helmet, sleepiness, use of mobile phones, speeding, inattentiveness, bad overtaking or turning, and other human errors, and stay vigilant while on road use. 

Herbosa pleaded for public and private entities to build more trauma centers for post-crash care that are highly integrated with ambulance services and telehealth. According to him, emergency care systems that are aligned with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) framework are likely to decrease  the death rate from road crash incidents by 50%. 

The creation of more exclusive motorcycle lanes is seen as one of the most effective ways to lessen road collisions involving PTWs. 

Dr. John Juliard Go, from the WHO Philippines, shared the sentiments of Dr. Herbosa as he explained the risks of using powered two-wheeler vehicles and why despite these, they continue to populate the Philippine roads these days. 

Dr. Go attributed the country’s high injury and fatality rate from road crashes to several environmental factors such as lack of inclusive planning, mixed traffic, design of road infrastructure, road surface conditions, roadside hazards, limited public transport infrastructure; vehicle risks such as lack of crash protection, braking errors, and motor stability especially in wet and rough road surfaces; road user risks like non-use of helmets, speeding, alcohol impairment, rider’s age and level of experience; and insufficient appropriate post-crash response from rescue facilities.

Citing a recent WHO publication on road safety, Dr. Go emphasized that the creation of more exclusive motorcycle lanes is seen as one of the most effective ways to lessen road collisions involving PTWs. He also hoped that the government would strengthen the implementation of road laws, such as speeding limits and helmet use. 

Mr. Antonio Pagulayan, officer-in-charge of MMDA Traffic Education Division  presented the plans of the government to address the safety of motorcyclists one of which  is to revive motorcycle lanes along main roads in Metro Manila such as EDSA and Commonwealth Road in Quezon City. 

At the open forum, Herbosa emphasized the need for the government to revisit current road engineering systems since these are patterned from foreign models and designed for four-wheeled vehicles rather than two-wheeled ones that are most rampant in our country.

Francis Nicole G. Maga