The Calabarzon region has registered the most number of transport vehicle crashes and road injury occurrences in the country at 2,386 over the last quarter of 2018, the Department of Health reported Thursday.
Citing figures of its Online National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (ONEISS) from the period Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018, the DOH said Calabarzon—composed of the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon—had 16.5 percent of the total vehicle crashes in the country.
Central Visayas (Region VII) followed with 2,125 cases (14.7 percent) and the National Capital Region (NCR) had 1,556 (10.8 percent), the ONEISS data showed.
This is the reason why the DOH in Calabarzon conducted the second Road Safety Management seminar for local government units.
“We are advocating for a localized approached in the implementation of road safety programs to prevent and lessen the incidence of road crashes, road injuries, accidents and even deaths since most of these occur in city, municipal and provincial roads,” DOH Regional Director Eduardo C. Janairo said.
“Road safety is a shared responsibility. We all have responsibility in the proper use of roads to ensure a safe travel. We should all be responsible in using vehicles and driving to avoid accident,” he said.
Janairo emphasized that formulating and implementing a strict local action plan with the coordination and support of all local stakeholders will reduce road fatalities.
“If road users obey the rules of the road, injuries and accidents can be prevented,” he said.
A total of 43,439 injury cases were reported in the country from the fourth quarter last year, according to ONEISS.
These cases came from 339 of 1,772 or hospitals and infirmaries in the country, with 173 of them private, 129 government-run, and 37 under the DOH.
The report also said there were 14,440 reported injuries due to vehicle crashes, with the median age of those hurt at 26 years old. There were more males (9,826 or 68.0%) than females 4,614 (32.0%) involved in T/VCs, the data showed.
Motorcycles produced the highest number of vehicle-related injuries with 8,994, followed by pedestrians with 1,456 cases.
Most of the injuries occurred in October (37.2%), with November at 35.5% and December with 27.3%.