SENATOR Grace Poe renewed her call for the swift passage of a bill creating the Philippine Transportation Safety Board (PTSB), an independent agency designed to centralize and professionalize investigations into land, sea, air, and rail accidents.
Senate Bill No. 1121 aims to address the alarming rise in transport-related fatalities and injuries by establishing a dedicated body focused not only on investigating incidents but also on preventing them through policy reforms, research, and safety oversight.
“Lives are lost and injuries are sustained daily by motorists for reasons that could have been prevented in the first place. This is simply unacceptable,” Poe said in a news release.
Citing data from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Poe highlighted that between January and November 2024, there were 62,723 road crashes, resulting in 332 deaths. Most incidents involved four-wheel vehicles, motorcycles, and trucks.
The senator stressed that while multiple agencies currently oversee transportation, none are exclusively devoted to safety. This gap, she argued, is what the PTSB aims to fill.
Under the proposed measure, the PTSB would function as an independent, non-regulatory body attached to the Office of the President, with an initial budget of PHP 50 million. Part of the funds would be allocated to the Transportation Safety Fund, supporting accident investigations, research, and personnel training.
The board would be composed of seven full-time members, each representing different transportation sectors—land, rail, air, and sea—as well as two members from the commuting public and road safety advocacy groups.
Among its core responsibilities are investigating the causes of accidents, maintaining a nationwide accident database, recommending safety standards, and submitting annual reports to the President and Congress.
“The goal is clear: let’s stop treating these tragedies as isolated incidents and start learning from them,” Poe emphasized.