Bicam panel OKs bill aimed at making land travel safe for kids

Traffic gridlock along Edsa (File photo by EDWIN BACASMAS / Philippine Daily Inquirer)

A measure that would make land travel for children safer was approved by the bicameral conference committee on Monday.

Senate Bill No. 1971 — “An Act Providing for the Special Protection of Child Passengers in Motor Vehicles and Providing Appropriations Thereof” — aims to give protection to infants and young children from serious injuries and death arising from road crashes and other traffic-related incidents.

The Senate Committee on Public Services, chaired by Sen. Grace Poe, and the House Committee on Transportation, chaired by Catanduanes Rep. Cesar Sarmiento, agreed to adopt major provisions in the Senate version.

READ: Senate OKs bill for safer child travel

The Senate approved its version early in October 2018, while the House of Representatives passed its counterpart measure, House Bill No. 6938, in February of the same year.

According to Sen. JV Ejercito, principal author of the said bill, “it’s about time” laws that will protect the lives of the people, especially the children, are implemented and crafted.

Ejercito said that he expected the “harmonized version of the measure to be ratified before the 17th Congress adjourns sine die on June 8, 2019.”

The measure mandates drivers of private vehicles “to secure a child, 12 years old and below, in a child restraint system while transporting a child on a road, street or highway.”

A child restraint system is “a device capable of accommodating a child occupant in a sitting or supine position designed to diminish the risk of injury in the event of a collision or of abrupt deceleration of the vehicle by limiting the mobility of the child’s body.”

Under the bill, children, 12 years old and below, will be “prohibited from sitting at the front seat of the vehicles, unless the child is at least 150 centimeters or 56 inches in height and capable to properly fit in the regular seat belt in the front seat.”

“The child restraint system shall be appropriate to the child’s age, height and weight and approved in accordance with safety standards for child restraint system,” Ejercito said.

Drivers are prohibited from leaving the children unattended inside a vehicle, even if they are wearing child restraint systems. /atm