For trauma surgeon Rafael Consunji, these effects include delayed speech and slow learning capabilities. In serious cases, the victim could die.
“And for me, we should be alarmed. Here in Zapatera, 75 percent of the students walk to and from school each day. Forty percent of them who are road victims need to go to the doctor,” said Consunji, also president of Safe Kids Philippines, a nongovernment organization dedicated to preventing injuries to children.
Safe Kids and the National Institutes of Health-University of the Philippines in Manila released yesterday the results of the “40-year Philippine Child Injury Review,” which showed that child injuries have become a leading cause of death among children in the Philippines.
Consunji reported that children are at seven times an increased risk for death from injury today as compared to 40 years ago.
“Major injury killers and their risks are age-related. Injuries are now the leading childhood killer for children aged 1-14 and for all Filipinos aged 1-44,” he added.
Child injuries are the fifth leading cause of death among Filipino children. The other major causes are pneumonia, diarrhea, nutritional deficiency and measles.
Consunji said that for the last 42 years, deaths caused by injuries only improved by 8.63 percent or 397 lives.
But the risk of a Filipino child dying from injuries has increased by 700 percent over the past 40 years.
In Asia, road traffic is a leading cause of death in children up to the age of 14, killing 13 per 100,000 children. Each year, 67,000 children are killed by road traffic injuries in Asia.
Consunji reported that 31 percent of the schoolchildren in the country, ages zero to 14, die from drowning and 24 percent from transport accidents.
Other unintentional injuries are traffic-related injuries, fire-related injuries, falls, drowning and poisoning.
Consunji identified that lack of knowledge and guidance from parents and teachers, a poor walking environment around schools, and lack of reinforcement of the implementation of laws as the causes.
“Only about five percent of all the schools in the country teach pedestrian safety. Our sidewalks are blocked by vehicles, trash, or vendors. Our motorists, too, lack education of traffic laws, such as slowing down before a pedestrian lane and allow civilians to pass by,” he explained.
Cebu City Schools Division Superintendent Lorna Rances said pedestrian safety will “definitely be integrated in class subjects like social studies and science.”
