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By Philip Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—Famed Asian actress Michelle Yeoh Wednesday brought her global campaign for road safety to the Philippines, warning that deaths and injuries from accidents in the Asia-Pacific region were reaching epidemic levels.

Sweating profusely in Manila’s heat, Yeoh patiently signed helmets for some 200 students during the launching of the “Helmets for Kids” campaign at the office of the Department of Education (DepEd) in Pasig City.

“It’s a real pleasure to be here in Manila. Most of all, I think this [campaign] is vital for the safety of our future generations. This is for the kids,” said the 47-year-old Malaysian-born actress.

Yeoh, who is the ambassador for the “Make Roads Safe” global campaign, starred in such movies as “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” and the James Bond film “Tomorrow Never Dies.”

Another major endorser is seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher.

Int’l transport forum

Speaking at an international transport forum sponsored by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) earlier, Yeoh pushed for universal use of helmets by motorcycle riders and the building of safer roads to cater to pedestrians and two-wheel vehicles.

“The Asia and the Pacific region is facing an epidemic of road death and injury, but we also have innovative Asian road safety solutions,” she said. “There is so much we can do to save lives on our roads.”

Yeoh referred to an international road assessment program for designing safer roads, and “the Global Helmet Vaccine Initiative”—a campaign by the Automobile Association of the Philippines (AAP) and the Asian Injury Prevention (AIP) Foundation to promote the use of helmets, particularly by children riding on motorcycles.

The campaign was also supported by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) Foundation, the World Bank, the ADB, the World Heath Organization, the Australian and US embassies, 3M and Pilipinas Shell.

Road safety, too

Yeoh highlighted the need to improve road safety for students as the Philippines prepares for the opening of classes on June 15. As part of the campaign, some 1,000 helmets will be given to students who ride on motorcycles to schools in Metro Manila.

The yellow helmets will be distributed to selected schools in Quezon City, Pasig City and Mandaluyong City to encourage students and their parents or guardians to use helmets while driving motorcycles and bicycles.

“The act is timely for the coming opening of classes where students who ride on motorcycles … we know how dangerous it is these times to be on just two wheels, especially on the road,” said Education Secretary Mona Valisno.

“We cannot and must not stop the students from attending their classes and instead encourage them to value education as a priceless opportunity. At the same time, we will help to keep them safe and guarded from the potential dangers along the way to school and back to their respective homes,” she added.

The United Nations has declared 2010 to 2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety. The UN Ministerial Conference on Road Safety also encourages greater focus on reducing injuries on the roads in every country of the world, Valisno said.

3,000 killed daily

About 60 percent of the world’s estimated 1.18 million annual deaths from road accidents occur in the Asia-Pacific, and increasingly victims are pedestrians and bicycle and motorcycle riders, said ADB vice president Ursula Shaefer-Preuss.

Some 1.3 million people aged 15-45 years old die in motorcycle accidents each year, “and millions more are severely disabled,” campaign organizers said.

The “global road traffic injury epidemic” kills more than 3,000 people, including at least 500 children, every day, they said. More than eight in 10 deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.

In 2002, World Health Organization figures show more people killed in road traffic accidents than by diabetes and malaria.

Needless suffering

“These deaths and injuries exact an enormous emotional and financial toll on our communities. But we can prevent this needless suffering by raising awareness, building support and making road safety a priority for every country,” former US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, chair of the Make Roads Safe North America, said in a statement.

“Countries struggling to meet the UN Millennium Development Goals cannot afford these losses in human and economic potential that these deaths represent, especially when the means to stop this disaster are at hand,” he said.

“Road safety is important to our health, our economy and our quality of life,” Mineta added.

Yeoh lamented that too many roads were built without thinking about the safety of its users.

“They are not just for cars. They are for pedestrians, they are also for cyclists, motorcyclists,” she said.

Campaign goals

The global campaign has several plans:

• Raise $300 million for an action plan to improve road safety in developing countries.

• Lead a 10-year global effort to halve the projected increase in road deaths by 2020.

• Ensure that at least 10 percent of development budgets for road infrastructure provided by the World Bank and other major lenders and donors are dedicated to road safety.

Organizers also noted an increase in the number of motorcycles in use due to low-cost payment schemes offered by manufacturers and distributors nationwide. With reports from Emil Sarmiento and Associated Press

Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100527-272274/Crouching-star-on-the-road-to-save-lives