By Atty. Sophia San Luis, executive director of law group ImagineLaw
Following the recent fatal road crashes along Subic–Clark–Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) and Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), we called for a broader, systems-based approach to road safety — highlighting that driver error is only a piece of a much larger puzzle.
When road crashes like these happen, the public and the government tend to blame drivers immediately. But road safety is a shared responsibility between those who use the roads and those who design and manage them.
Two major road safety risk factors emerged from the SCTEX bus crash: speeding and impaired driving. Reports showed that the bus driver may have fallen asleep behind the wheel. This incident underscored the need for stronger enforcement of measures to address these risks. Traffic enforcers need to conduct regular random and rotating speed enforcement along expressways to deter drivers from speeding, in addition to existing speed traps along the highway.
The management must also look at the design of the toll plaza area itself. Are there sufficient visual cues or road furniture to signal drivers to slow down?
Similar to the SCTEX crash, criticisms about the Naia crash focused again on the driver. While we believe that the driver has to be held accountable, we would like to point out flaws on the design — like drop-off zones that face sidewalks — that can turn minor mistakes into fatal incidents. Road design, vehicle safety standards, proper infrastructure, and law enforcement should also be scrutinized to better prevent similar crashes in the future.
The Philippines already has many road safety laws, including the 2019 Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act and a 2018 joint circular on speed limit setting and enforcement, but are not being enforced fully. We trained over 170 enforcers from the Land Transportation Office on speed enforcement in 2020, yet many regional offices still lack speed guns up to now. We would also like to point out that Republic Act 11229, or the Child Safety on Motor Vehicles law, is still not being implemented. We have seen from recent crashes that these interventions work if they are fully enforced.
Aside from weak enforcement, the Department of Transportation’s recent creation of a road safety task force also highlighted the fact that the government did not have a dedicated task force prior to these incidents.
In light of these events, we urged the government to act decisively by prioritizing enforcement, investing in safety infrastructure and institutionalizing road safety within government agencies.
We hope these incidents serve as an opportunity to bring much needed attention to road safety. Road safety should be a government priority as we are all road users.