AMID several fatal road accidents, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority yesterday said road safety is a shared responsibility and called on motorists to be responsible and obey traffic rules.
MMDA Traffic Education Division Chief Edison “Bong” Nebrija issued the call in the wake of the deadly smash-up involving a bus of transport company Solid North Transit Inc., which left 10 people dead, including six children, and injured 37 others last Thursday.
Investigation showed the Solid North bus hit a vehicle in a queue at the Tarlac City toll plaza of the Subic Clark Tarlac Expressway, leading to a series of crashes with three other vehicles.
Last Sunday, two people, including a 5-year-old girl, died when a sports utility vehicle crashed into the entrance of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1’s departure area.
“Road safety is a shared responsibility. Hindi lamang iyan responsibilidad ng gobyerno, kung hindi po lahat ng mga gumagamit ng kalsada, lahat po ng road users (It is not only the government’s responsibility. It is the responsibility of every one using the road, all road users),” Nebrija told the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon forum.
He said most road crashes are due to the driver’s misbehavior and failure to follow traffic rules.
“There are other underlying factors why we have accidents, also because of the irresponsible or reckless driving of drivers,” he added.
He said most drivers, when accosted by traffic enforcers for a violation, would equate road safety with the payment of fines and penalties, rather than obeying them in the first place.
He said only two things can happen: that you commit an accident or you become the victim
He said the MMDA has enough traffic enforcers – more than 2,500 – and resources to implement traffic rules and manage the flow of traffic in the metropolis. What is needed, he added, is for motorists to know their responsibilities on the road.
“We need to inculcate and make the people aware that road safety is everybody’s responsibility and we need to look out for each other’s safety on the road. We must remember that a vehicle in the hands of an irresponsible or reckless driver becomes a weapon; it can kill. We should all be responsible drivers and road users,” he said.
Last year, the MMDA said the government aimed to reduce road crash fatalities in the metropolis by 35 percent by 2028 through the Metro Manila Road Safety Action Plan (MMRSAP) 2024-2028.
Data from the Metro Manila Accident Reporting and Analysis System (MMARAS) in 2024 revealed an alarming rate of approximately 92,583 road crashes annually over the past few years, resulting in an average of 410 deaths per year.
Among the fatalities, 51 percent were drivers, 36 percent were pedestrians, and 13 percent were passengers.
Data presented by the Department of Health early last year showed that 12,000 Filipinos die yearly nationwide due to road crashes, a figure, the department said, that has steadily increased in the last decade.
From 7,938 deaths in 2011, the number increased to 11,096 deaths in 2021, with males representing 84 percent of the fatalities.
The MMRSAP, according to the MMDA, will emphasize five pillars of road safety, namely, road safety management, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer road users, and post-crash response.
