MANILA - Bad driving habits and pedestrians who disobey traffic rules are to blame for an estimated 34 people who die daily in the Philippines due to road crashes, a former Land Transportation Office chief said Tuesday. Alberto Suansing, a former LTO and Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board chief and now the secretary general of the Philippine Global Road Safety Partnership, said some deaths in road crashes can be attributed to lack of discipline on the road. "If we look at the statistics, although it is spotty, we put the death rate at 34 deaths daily because of road crashes, just road crashes. That includes collisions, run overs, everything that involves road traffic. That's about 1.25 deaths every hour," he said in a Mornings@ANC interview. "The most common cause - you can trace that to bad driving habits number 1. And then when it involves pedestrians, there are also some pedestrians who disobey traffic rules like for example crossing the streets that are dangerous to cross in the first place. Example is EDSA or Commonwealth," he added. Road crashes have come into focus recently after a Don Mariano Transit bus fell off the Skyway in Parañaque City on Monday, killing 18 people. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/metro-manila/12/15/13/least-15-dead-bus-falls-skyway Skyway management said the bus was speeding at 120 kph, over the 80 kph limit for buses on the elevated highway. It also noted that the bus had worn-out tires and went into a skid due to the slippery road. http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/video/nation/metro-manila/12/16/13/killer-bus-speeding-worn-out-tires Suansing noted that it is not the first time that a bus fell off the Skyway. He said that in the 2011 incident, the circumstances were the same: the bus was speeding and a slight drizzle had made the road slippery. The former LTO chief said bus drivers should not speed up especially since they are driving a 20-ton vehicle. He said that during his time as LTO chief, he used to impound bus units and make erring bus drivers take road safety exams in his office. "That was my way of telling them that we mean business," he said. He also said he would ground entire bus fleets if an accident results in death. "To me, one death is too many," he said. Suansing said CCTV cameras are not enough to stop public utility drivers from speeding on the Skyway. He said motorists are used to breaking traffic rules and tend to speed in highways anytime of the day. He said the government needs to deploy more traffic enforcers to enforce the law. "The impression I'm getting is Filipino drivers, some of them think of traffic rules as a joke only because they can get away with it...Look at what [MMDA Chairman Francis] Tolentino did in that part of Commonwealth. Look at the drivers, they drive 60 kph," he said. Because they see the enforcers there, they see motorists being apprehended. That's it. That is how it should be done," he added.
