With increasing urbanization, road traffic injuries (RTIs) continue to emerge as an area of concern. In the Municipality of Mahayag, RTIs remain as one of the top causes of morbidity and mortality. Whilst efforts on achieving road safety in Mahayag such as legislations and improved infrastructures are present, RTIs are among vulnerable road users are still on the rise due to poor road safety behavior. This research is therefore conducted to determine the effect of school-based road safety education (RSE) among grades 4 to 6 students of Balamban Elementary School as an intervention in enhancing the road safety behavior, attitude towards injury prevention and risk perception. This study employed a pre and post interventional design. The Road Safety Index Questionnaire (RSIQ) was used to measure the behavior, attitude, risk perception of the respondents. A sample size of 90 (CI=95%) from a total population of 116 grades 4 to 6 students were drawn based on a case cohort computation. From the 99 who took the pre-test, there was a drop-out rate of 7%. In the end, only 92 students, completed the study. The intervention used in this study consisted of a lecture on Road Safety Education (RSE) facilitated by the PNP Highway Patrol Group of Molave. Results of this study show that road safety education can significantly enhance the attitude towards injury prevention of grades 4 to 6 students as evidenced by an increase in the mean positive responses with corresponding p value of 0.009. The number of respondents with positive road safety behavior and good risk perception also increased. As a conclusion, road safety education as an intervention did enhance the behavior, attitude towards injury prevention and risk perception which are an essential element in becoming responsible road users and in the prevention of RTIs.

Keyword: health education road safety school-based education interventional design Mahayag ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR