Mandatory helmets for motorcycle riders sought

MANILA, Philippines - Senator Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. on Sunday pushed anew for the swift passage of his bill requiring motorcycle riders, including back-riders, to wear helmets. Revilla, who sponsored his bill on the Senate floor last March 3, said his proposed measure is similar to the Seatbelt Law, which was legislated to promote safe travel. "Wearing a helmet has been shown to decrease the risk and severity of injuries among motorcyclists by about seventy percent and the likelihood of deaths by almost forty percent," Revilla, chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Services, said. Once passed into law, the bill would require all drivers and back riders of motorcycles, including scooters, to wear standard quality helmets. Revilla said even the Department of Health (DOH) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have expressed concern on the increasing number of motorcycle accidents in the country for the last three years. There are about 3.5 million motorcycles in the Philippines, comprising 45 percent of all registered vehicles in the country. Citing figures gathered by the Traffic Operations Center of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) from January to December 2008, he said motorcycles have the highest fatality rate with 106 motorcycles involved, or 28.19 percent of the total fatal accidents. A report of the Traffic Management Group (TMG) showed that out of the total 14,202 traffic accidents in year 2004, 3,010 or 21 percent involved motorcycles. The figures rose to 24 percent or 2,798 out of 11,425 accidents in 2005 and in the first two months of 2006, the TMG recorded a total of 485 motorcycle accidents out of the total 1,364 accidents, which accounted for 35 percent of the total traffic accidents. - GMANews.TV