Bad drivers blamed for most accidents

Almost 80 percent of road accidents in the country may be attributed to human error, the Philippine National Police said.

According to data from the PNP Highway Patrol Group, factors contributing to human error in road accidents include reckless driving, bad overtaking and bad turns.

“We believe that these can be attributed to drivers not having proper training on driving,” said Supt. Elizabeth Velasquez, HPG spokesperson.

Citing statistics from 2014, the police official said 78 percent of road accidents last year were attributed to human error.

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There were 15,572 road accidents in 2014, with almost 13,000 of them found to be mistakes of the driver. These accidents resulted in 1, 252 deaths and injuries to 9, 347 persons.

This was an increase from 2013’s 12,875 road accidents, while 2012 had 9,740 cases of road accidents across the country.

“Among the notable cases are speeding, reckless driving, bad overtaking and bad turning,” she said.

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Other factors contributing to road accidents, the HPG official said, were due to mechanical failure such as faulty brake systems.

The PNP also noted that regular four-wheel vehicles are usually involved in road mishaps even though more motorcycles are seen on roads.

In 2012, the HPG reported a total of 5,428 cars involved in road accidents. This went up to 6,035 the following year, while there were 8,000 accidents involving cars in 2014.

Buses, trucks, jeepneys and tricycles are reported to be the usual vehicles involved in such accidents.

In 2012, there were only 3,112 motorcycles involved in road accidents. This went up to 4,616 in 2013 and 5,720 in 2014.

The HPG added that road accidents involving drunk drivers rose in the past three years. In 2012, there were 375 cases, which went up to 390 in 2013 and 498 in 2014.

Velasquez said there were fewer drivers using their cellphones when they met an accident. In 2014, there were only 128 such cases, as compared to 2013’s 178 and 2012’s 173.

In 2012 1,129 people were killed in road accidents while 4,904 others injured. The following year, there were 1,362 deaths and 7,817 injured victims.

But in 2014, there were 1,252 deaths due to road accidents while the number of injured victims went up to 9,347.