KEY representatives from countries throughout Asia will converge in Manila for the annual comprehensive policy and capability-building conference, Asia Pacific Road Safety 2017, on August 22 and 23.
Together with their partners, the Global Road Safety Partnership (GRSP) and International Road Assessment Program (iRAP) are scaling up to SaveLIVES across the region.
This, in turn, is expected to help meet the fast-approaching United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) target to halve deaths worldwide by 2020.
Based on estimates, 1.25 million people are killed and more than 50 million are injured in road crashes every year.
By 2020, road-traffic crashes are also projected to rise by 80 percent in low- and middle-income countries because of increasing motorization.
“We need to share successes and results across the region,” the event’s organizer said of the required regional efforts to achieve such goal.
The World Health Organization has launched the SaveLIVES package that provides countries with an easy and implementable priority list of actions to scale up and implement quickly.
The work of GRSP and iRAP partners shows how various stakeholders can contribute to the ambitious road-safety targets set out in the SDGs, and how they can tie up to SaveLIVES.
Delegates expected to grace the two-date event are senior government officials from road safety, transport, health, police and education; development bank leaders; engineers and representatives from transport authorities and motoring clubs road safety researchers and experts; representatives of non-governmental organizations, working in road safety in the region; and key business representatives with an interest in road safety.
The upcoming Asia Pacific Road Safety 2017 event will provide them with a range of practical and stimulating policy leadership case studies, capability-building workshops, keynote addresses, high-level panel discussions and plenary sessions over two full days.
Now on in 10th year, this summit is timely to be held Manila considering the rising number of road accident-related deaths and injuries in the country.
On the average, 34 Filipinos are killed everyday in road accidents, the latest government data showed.
According to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), 8,666 people died due to road crashes in 2014.
In a study of commissioned by Bloomberg and World Health Organization during the time, around 50 percent of reported road crashes occurred in Metro Manila.
Figures from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority showed 45 percent of victim fatalities in Metro Manila in the same year were pedestrians; 43 percent, drivers; and 26 percent, passengers.
The Department of Health saiud ages of most victims ranged from 15 to 44 years old.
The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) said in 2013, common causes of road crashes were driver-, vehicle- and road-related.
Trucks, buses, and motorcycles are the top three most dangerous vehicles involved in road crashes, whose specific causes are brake loss, speeding and reckless driving. In the next three years, the DOTC estimated there will be around 300,000 people who will likely die in road crashes.
Since 2015, the Philippines has been undergoing a five-year program on road safety to address reports on traffic-related injuries as one of the major public health issues in the country.
The Philippines – together with China, Thailand, India and Tanzania – is being supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, through its “Bloomberg Initiative Global Road Safety Program” funded with a total of $125,000.
The foundation, based in the United States, has been providing technical support in reviewing and strengthening road-safety legislation to chosen countries until 2019.