PH saw over 19k road accidents from Jan-Aug 2025

MANILA: The Philippines is currently experiencing a vehicle crash epidemic, with 19,950 incidents recorded by the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) from January-August 2025. 

The said figures were shared by Police Senior Master Sergeant (PSMS) Christopher Jaway at the 2025 “Meeting With the Experts” road safety conference organized by the Automobile Association of the Philippines (AAP). 

Department of Health Secretary Teodoro Herbosa, who also shared his insights as a trauma surgeon and a public official at the event, described the aforementioned as a public health problem.

“That’s our number one cause of death for that age group (five to 25 years old), imagine you’re healthy and the number one cause of death is [becoming> road kill. That’s a public health problem if you ask me. That’s a very major health problem,” Herbosa said. 

“Why am I talking road safety when I have so many other problems in public health? Why shouldn’t I? It is the number one killer for young people. It is the top five in the top ten killers. It is a public health problem, and there is a silent epidemic of road deaths in the country,” Herbosa added. 

In shedding more light on the matter,  Dr. John Juliard Go, the Technical Director of the World Health Organization - Philippines, presented more data regarding the land transportation accident issue the country currently faces. 

Specifically, the data he presented comes from the Philippines Statistics Authority’s (PSA) collated data from nationwide issuances of death certificates from municipal and city civil registrar’s offices. 

From 2021-2023, the percentage of deaths due to land transportation accidents compared to total deaths has been on a climb. By 2023, the same data set showed that 1.9 percent of total deaths that year were caused by road crashes. 

Furthermore, 53 percent of the said traffic fatalities are vulnerable road users, such as: 

• Two or three-wheeled vehicles - 21 percent
• Pedestrians - 23 percent
• Cyclists - Six percent
• Micro-mobility devices (e-scooter) - three percent

The rest, or 47 percent, were using larger (four-wheeled or more) vehicles. Among the provinces, the highest number of road traffic deaths was in Pangasinan. Nueva Ecija and Batangas are also within the top five. Among highly urbanized centers, Quezon City has seen the most road crash deaths since 2020. 

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Underlying causes

Why is this happening? Well, the subject matter experts had something to share in this regard. 

PSMS Jaway’s perspective as a road crash investigator revealed that unsafe driver attitudes and behaviors, including exceeding posted speed limits, aggressive driving, distracted driving, ignoring traffic laws, and failing to yield to other drivers and pedestrians, are the primary causes. 

For the larger picture,  Dr. Go of WHO Philippines further pointed out the challenges to road safety. Particularly notable are the unsafe road designs for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists. Data integration between the PSA, DOH, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), and the Land Transportation Office (LTO) on road accident statistics is likewise nonexistent. 

And while there are laws present for speeding, drunk driving, helmet use, and child restraints, there is still the matter of weak enforcement, fragmented governance, and weak prioritization. 

Also pointed out by the WHO official was the large gaps in policies regarding in-vehicle safety equipment. Helmet fastening is still not required by law. There are also no laws present mandating pedestrian protective equipment on cars, anti-lock braking systems, and stability control systems. 

There is hope

From his experience and studies as a former professor at the University of the Philippines, DOH Secretary Herbosa mentioned that all of these road crashes are actually preventable. 

“These studies have all pointed to one unshakable truth: that all road crashes are preventable. This could be averted via the victory of good policy, good science, and collective action on a whole-of-society level,” Herbosa said. 

To carry about this lofty goal, MMDA Head of Traffic Education Division Edison Nebrija Jr. presented the Metro Manila Road Safety Action Plan. The said plan, which is hoped to be enacted and carried out until 2027, involves 10 proposed projects that are seen to help reduce road crash incidents, at least for Metro Manila.

These projects include: 

• Traffic bottleneck improvement
• Further improvement of traffic corridors
• Improvement of intersections
• Traffic Signal System upgrades
• Enhancement of traffic safety and education
• Enhancement of Intelligent Transport System (ITS)
• Development of a database system
• Strengthening of traffic management planning and plan implementation
• Strengthening exterior coordination of MMDA

Dr. Tho Bella Dinh-Zarr, a senior advisor for the Public Health and Transportation to the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) and Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF), as well as the acting chairman of the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NSTB), also talked about the importance of crash investigation. 

“Through my past work in investigating aviation, rail, and other transportation disasters, I know that the most important work we can do is prevent deadly crashes before they happen. By doing in-depth injury prevention-focused investigations based on the “Five I Framework,” we can turn tragedy into knowledge to help ensure that every family makes it home safely,” Dr. Dinh-Zarr said. 

The Five I Framework, which Dr. Dinh-Zarr founded, consists of the following key points

• In-depth - complete, detailed timeline of an incident, along with identifying risk factors and identifying similarities to previous crashes. 
• Impartial - neutral and impartial conduct of an investigation in connection with technical data, subject matter experts, and the investigators themselves. 
• Immediate - prompt data collection and quick usage of gathered data for timely safety reform.
• Independent - tapping independent organizations for safety recommendations. 
• Injury prevention - identification of factors that could have prevented the crash or could have increased the survivability of those involved. Data collected to be used in practical recommendations for safety reform and new policies. 

All the aforementioned, as AAP pointed out, takes the focus out of finding who’s at fault. Instead, the Five I Framework focuses on learning from crashes to prevent them from happening again. 

FIA Secretary General for Automobile Mobility Willem Groenwald, likewise shared his organization’s enthusiasm for collaborating with local entities to further promote safer, cleaner, and more sustainable mobility. 

Together with FIA’s members like the AAP, the FIA, and the FIA Foundation, it will have a larger reach for its projects. Among the aforementioned are helmet distribution activities, road safety campaigns, road safety capacity building programs, and the building of capacities for road safety research. 

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