Better Data for Safer Roads in the Philippines

Featured GRSF-BIGRS Grant Activity ⌵︎

Better Data for Safer Roads in the Philippines: New legislation supporting nation-wide scale up of DRIVER in the Philippines

The Data for Road Incident Visualization, Evaluation and Reporting System (DRIVER) is being scaled-up in the Philippines since 2017 with World Bank GRSF support under the BIGRS. To further enforce this process, the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) signed and released on July 16, 2020 the Memorandum Circular (MC) institutionalizing the nationwide use and implementation of DRIVERS. This means that all PNP stations and offices in the country will be mandated to integrate DRIVER into their daily workflow. The MC details general and specific guidelines including the key offices and personnel within the PNP who will champion the adoption of DRIVER. On the national level, the Directorate offices will supervise the efficient and effective implementation of the MC while the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) will provide training to key personnel involved in the use of the system. On the regional and local levels, Regional, Provincial, District, and City Directors will ensure faithful compliance of lower units. Finally, the tasks of data collection, encoding, and monitoring will be given the Duty Traffic Investigators, Investigators-on-Case (IOC), and the Road Safety Officer (RSO).

The MC also specifies the procedures that will govern the actions to be undertaken by the responsible personnel in the uploading of road crash data into DRIVER. The whole process is divided into seven main steps. It starts with data collection which includes obtaining relevant information from the parties involved in a crash. After updating the necessary details in the Road Crash Incident Report Form, all data will then be entered and uploaded into the DRIVER system. Copies of the incident report form will then be distributed to key personnel for filing and transcribing. Lastly, a daily accounting of all crime incidents reported in the traffic unit or office police station will be done. Finally, the MC shall take effect 15 days after the filing of a copy of the MC at the University of the Philippines Law Center in consonance with the Revised Administrative Code of 1987. 

In connection with the release of this MC, the World Bank team prepared the following video presentation introducing both DRIVERS and the MC and a slide deck with a more detailed and technical discussion on the specifics of the MC, to be presented to key officers from PNP regional offices throughout the country via an online meeting after the said 15-day notice with the UP Law Center. 

This new legislation is another strong milestone in establishing DRIVERS as the national crash data collection system in the Philippines and serves as a good example for other countries interested in using the platform.