(Eagle News)– Senator Grace Poe on Wednesday reiterated the need for the creation of a National Transportation Safety Board.
Poe renewed her call after a bus fell off a bridge in Occidental Mindoro, resulting in the deaths of 19 people.
According to the senator, the body would be in charge of looking into transportation-related incidents—whether on land, by sea, air, railways and pipeline systems—and determine their causes.
In pushing for the creation of the board, Poe noted that in 2014, based on Philippine Statistics Authority data, 43,853 Filipinos have died in accidents, mostly vehicular.
Her proposal is pending before the Senate.
She said that apart from the board, the country needs to implement certain measures to ensure safety on the streets—strict driver’s licensing, use of devices like GPS and speed delimeters, and garage inspection of public vehicles, among others.
“We should also see to it that the billions of pesos in car registration fees which is earmarked for road safety, such as railings and lights, end up in the streets installed, and not in private pockets,” she said.
“As we express our deepest sympathies to the family of the Mindoro bus crash victims, we are enraged with the loss of lives due to events that could have been prevented,” she added.