SOME 700,000 people across Asia die from road accidents every year, far more than any natural disaster or viral infection ever decimates at any given time and yet, most people, institutions or even governments are at their wit’s end addressing the problem and make the statistics come down.
In the Philippines the numbers are equally disturbing, with 9,758 deaths based on data reported by the World Health Organization in May 2014. That makes road death the 16th most aggressive killer in the country apart from several variations of cancer.
The Road Crash Statistics Report of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority reported the same year that a total 90,258 Filipinos either perished or were injured in road accidents in Metro Manila alone.
Such are the numbers, not just here in the Philippines, but everywhere else around the world that famous people, like Hollywood star Michelle Yeoh, and such institutions, as the National Geographic, Prudence Foundation and the influential Federation Internationale de L’Automobile banded together in Malaysia recently to launch a global campaign to try to halve the number of global road-accident deaths by 2020.
“We need to be ambitious, we have no choice. But halving the number of deaths by 2020 can definitely be done because we have the answers to the problem,” Yeoh said in a group interview with Filipino journalists in Kuala Lumpur.
The internationally acknowledged Malaysian star said everyone has a role to play in the United Nations-endorsed Safe Steps road-safety program she and the influential global institutions launched in Kuala Lumpur only recently.
“We always have to start from the home. We all have a role to play and we must be part of the solution. We have to embrace this and take the steps to make it right, not just lip service,” Yeoh stressed.
She also asked everyone and not just governments or regulators to not be depressed by the horrendous death statistics attributable to road accidents: “Do not be depressed. Be inspired, instead.”
Jean Todt, more known for his involvement in Formula 1 racing than his deliberate effort to associate his name with the UN secretary general as its special envoy for road safety, pointed out that even developed countries, such as France or the United Kingdom, used to suffer from shameful road accident-fatality numbers until the people themselves and their government decided to do something about.
Some 45 years ago, Todt said France reported 18,000 road deaths a year, until the French government made the issue a priority and brought the number down to just 3,000 fatalities, or five times less that it was in the 1970s.
This despite the number of vehicles on French road having actually expanded three more times, the motoring executive and icon said.
In reality, Prudence Foundation Chairman Donald Kanak, the state of any country’s infrastructure or legal-enforcement environment has nothing to do with road-death numbers at all.
The UK or France, for example, have some of the best road and the best traffic law-enforcement agencies anywhere on the planet and these countries continue to report horrendous, albeit, lower road deaths than most countries in Asia.
“Road safety is something anyone can do. The roads in other countries may be different, but everybody is aware of the need for road safety and these are things that can change the number of road accidents,” the insurance executive said.
It was pointed out that the state of public infrastructures have no bearing at all on road deaths, that people cause each accident, certainly not the roads.
“Accepting responsibility is the hardest, and behaving safely. That is the focus. Safety and security is a basic part of our business. We are insurers,” Kanak said.
He and the other global figures and institutions acknowledged that making people road-safety conscious everywhere “does not get as much attention as natural disasters like typhoons or earthquakes” do.
He and the other executives and global figures are only too acutely aware that viral infections get far more attention than road-death statistics.
They all said road safety, unlike the virus, does not need any scientific breakthrough to get licked.
“That is where we hope to put the spotlight on. The whole purpose to this is exactly that,” Kanak said.