ILOILO City – A new measure requiring drivers and passengers of non-motorized scooters, roller skates, roller blades, and skateboarders here to wear standard helmets has been proposed.
A joint committee report of the Sangguniang Panlungsod’s (SP) Committee on Police, Fire, Penology, Public Safety, Order and Security, Drugs and Rehabilitation, and the Committee on Health, Sanitation and Hospital Services presented by Councilor Sedfrey Cabaluna proposed such measure focused on child safety and accident prevention.
It was lobbied by the Department of Pediatrics of the Western Visayas Medical Center and the Philippine Pediatric Society through Councilor Candice Magdalene A. Tupas.
Cabaluna said the proposed measure was prompted by the death of a teenager due to traumatic brain injury following a hard fall while practicing on his skateboard at the Iloilo Esplanade.
Tupas, for her part, specifically proposed to amend Regulation Ordinance No. 2008-394, an ordinance amending City Ordinance No. 242-1977 or “An ordinance requiring drivers and passengers of motorcycles, motorized scooters or motor bicycles plying within the city to wear standard helmets while riding on the said vehicles, prohibiting minors below 5 years old to ride therein…”
Covered under her proposed ordinance are city streets, roads, parks, or other property open to the public or used by the public for pedestrian or vehicular traffic, recreation and national highways within the city.
The ordinance aims to reduce or at least minimize the incidence of disability and death resulting from injuries incurred on the said rides.
However, the joint committee recommended that a separate ordinance be passed regulating non-motorized scooters, rotten skates, roller blades and skateboards for the following reasons:
* Prohibited acts under Section 7a of the proposed amendments are inapplicable because roller skates, roller blades, and skateboards are entirely prohibited from plying the city streets, roads and national highways even if the rider is wearing a standard helmet;
* The provisions as to prohibition of passengers who are not wearing a standard quality helmet under Sections 7b and 7c is also not applicable as passengers are not practicable to roller skates, roller blades and skateboards; and
* The prohibition of minors below five years old to ride at the front or back seat without wearing a standard quality helmet under Section 7e is also not applicable to those using roller skater, roller blades and skateboards.
The city council adopted the joint committee report./PN
