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Tag: #SafeRoadsPH

Delays in implementation of road safety law put children at risk

Published by Ellen on May 4, 2016

By Maria Feona Imperial, VERA Files

Ask all five presidential candidates about their plans for children and most of them would touch on providing classrooms and free lunch for undernourished kids.

When it comes to transport issues, they would often discuss the worsening traffic problem in urban areas and their plans to solve it.

This election season, road safety was almost never talked about. Even if every day, around 263 children fall victim to road crashes, the Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) estimates.

In three months, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III will step down with a legacy of having enacted a landmark law on child road safety. But that law has yet to be fully implemented, exposing more Filipino children to risks every day.

Continue readingDelays in implementation of road safety law put children at risk

Dear next president: How will you make the country’s roads safe?

Published by Ellen on April 23, 2016
Photo by Ace Esmeralda of Security Matters
Photo by Ace Esmeralda of Security Matters

By Dinna Louise C. Dayao

They were all in their teens. John Russel Garcia, John Paul Tena, Kirby Bokingo, Jaymee Gubaton, Bren Loren Calabines, and Rodalyn Bautista were graduating Grade 10 students.

They had their whole lives ahead of them: graduations, college, careers. But everything ended in a fiery crash on a road in Tagaytay in the wee hours of January 17, 2016.

It started as a joyride. According to news reports, the youngsters were in a car driven by Calabines, who had a student license. It was his father’s car; the boy reportedly took it without his parent’s permission. The car hit a concrete barrier and several trees before bursting into flames. All six teens died in the horrific crash.

Continue readingDear next president: How will you make the country’s roads safe?