The city government with the Human Development and Empowerment Services (HDES), the Land Transportation Office (LTO), and law enforcement agencies successfully held the Child Road Safety Law Enforcement Visibility Day yesterday, June 13, in a bid to reduce child road deaths and injuries in the city.
Initially hindered by the early morning rain, the activity was moved in the afternoon to coincide with the release of school children from five focal public schools.
Traffic enforcers from LTO, the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Office of the City Administrator, among others, were deployed to Putik Central School, Zamboanga Central School, Zamboanga National High School-West, Baliwasan Central School, and San Jose Gusu Elementary School to flag down motorists seen to violate road safety laws in force nationwide.
Because the activity aims to inform, educate and advocate for public road safety for all children in the city, flagged down motorists were issued information, education and communication (IEC) materials instead of citation tickets.
A similar soft enforcement activity is likewise scheduled in August but citations will be given out to violators in November when hard enforcement starts.
Among the laws to be enforced are the Child Safety in Motor Vehicles Act (R.A. No. 11229), Motorcycle Helmet Act of 2015 (R.A. No. 10054), Anti-Drunk and Drugged Driving Act of 2013 (R.A. No. 10586), Land Transportation and Traffic Code (R.A. No. 4413), and Seat Belts Use Act of 1999 (R.A. No. 8750).
Organized by the National Coalition for Child Road Traffic Injury Prevention, a multi-sectoral partnership of government agencies and civil society organizations working together to reduce child road deaths and injuries in the country, Child Road Safety Law Enforcement Visibility Day will kick off the week-long commemoration of National Safe Kids Week and will form part of the government’s “Oplan Balik Eskwela” activities nationwide. Every third week of June is celebrated as the National Safe Kids Week, as mandated by Presidential Proclamation 1307 by then president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. (Claudine Uniana)