# Philippine Road Toll



## mogo51 (Jun 11, 2011)

There was an atrocious road accident near Agoo La Union yesterday, the count so far is 20 dead. From what I have learned, both a Jeepney and a Partas bus were overtaking and had a head on collision.
Everyone in the Jeepney was killed, including the 2 sitting on the roof! The driver was an unlicensed 17 year old, as he was the only sober one in the crew, so they made him drive. The 2 on the roof were not found until sunrise, several hours later, as they were flung a long distance into the jungle.
There were also many from the bus fatally or seriously injured, so the likelihood of a rising toll there is high. 
I have tried to google the current road toll this morning, but no figures shown. Last year in excess of 10k people were killed on the roads in Philippines, but many suspect it is much high, due to 'numbers doctoring'. That would not surprise me.
What a sad side of Christmas this story is, I could not believe it when first told, but my wife saw some reports on CNN Philippines yesterday afternoon. What a ridiculous and absurd decision to have this young unlicensed, inexperienced driver in charge of the vehicle. We all also know the behaviour of long distance bus drivers here - a bad cocktail mix. RIP to all, is about all I can say about this senseless loss of life.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

mogo51 said:


> There was an atrocious road accident near Agoo La Union yesterday, the count so far is 20 dead. From what I have learned, both a Jeepney and a Partas bus were overtaking and had a head on collision.
> Everyone in the Jeepney was killed, including the 2 sitting on the roof! The driver was an unlicensed 17 year old, as he was the only sober one in the crew, so they made him drive. The 2 on the roof were not found until sunrise, several hours later, as they were flung a long distance into the jungle.
> There were also many from the bus fatally or seriously injured, so the likelihood of a rising toll there is high.
> I have tried to google the current road toll this morning, but no figures shown. Last year in excess of 10k people were killed on the roads in Philippines, but many suspect it is much high, due to 'numbers doctoring'. That would not surprise me.
> What a sad side of Christmas this story is, I could not believe it when first told, but my wife saw some reports on CNN Philippines yesterday afternoon. What a ridiculous and absurd decision to have this young unlicensed, inexperienced driver in charge of the vehicle. We all also know the behaviour of long distance bus drivers here - a bad cocktail mix. RIP to all, is about all I can say about this senseless loss of life.


Hear you Ron and not so far from home. Bengie with a finger on the pulse, local inputs tells me that the bus driver has been arrested and jailed even though the 17 Y/O jeepny driver was unlicensed.
Time will tell with an outcome to who was wrong, in the interim many suffer the loss of loved ones after a needless accident that apparently occurred while both were overtaking.
Like you Ron and other members the trip from manila to SFC is acceptable, but not without incidence, a trip from SFC to Baguio on a bus leaves the heart pounding and not for the feint hearted. 

My thoughts go out to those lost and their families.

Cheers, Steve.


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

mogo51 said:


> There was an atrocious road accident near Agoo La Union yesterday, the count so far is 20 dead. From what I have learned, both a Jeepney and a Partas bus were overtaking and had a head on collision.
> Everyone in the Jeepney was killed, including the 2 sitting on the roof! The driver was an unlicensed 17 year old, as he was the only sober one in the crew, so they made him drive. The 2 on the roof were not found until sunrise, several hours later, as they were flung a long distance into the jungle.
> There were also many from the bus fatally or seriously injured, so the likelihood of a rising toll there is high.
> I have tried to google the current road toll this morning, but no figures shown. Last year in excess of 10k people were killed on the roads in Philippines, but many suspect it is much high, due to 'numbers doctoring'. That would not surprise me.
> What a sad side of Christmas this story is, I could not believe it when first told, but my wife saw some reports on CNN Philippines yesterday afternoon. What a ridiculous and absurd decision to have this young unlicensed, inexperienced driver in charge of the vehicle. We all also know the behavior of long distance bus drivers here - a bad cocktail mix. RIP to all, is about all I can say about this senseless loss of life.


I don't think those accounts are quite right. Most sources say 29 on the jeepney, 20 killed. Only minor injuries on the bus. Still terrible.

ABS / CBN has CCTV of the crash from a building that was a good distance from the crash site. They had it on TV news but not on their website yet. The jeep was shown very clearly when it passed by the building. I don't think anyone was on top but I wasn't thinking about that at the time. Then the jeep goes quite a distance and the video is not that good (probably zoomed), but you can clearly see the jeep veer into the path of the bus, just after another car in the same direction of the bus passed by. It might have been trying to pass but I never noticed another vehicle in front of the jeepney. It just swerved and you can see the bus braking hard, to no avail.

It does not appear to be the fault of the bus driver but he and the bus company are currently being held accountable. That should change. The bus company failed to turn over the dashcam footage by the due time and that is why they are being penalized. Apparently they turned over the inside bus files but not the dashcam file. 
Then LTFRB refused the SD card because it could not be read by their standard reader.

CNN / PH has the footage from 4 cams inside the bus. Although it was quite an impact, you can see that it was probably not life threatening for most.


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## mogo51 (Jun 11, 2011)

You have had the benefit of later released information. I was going on information I was told by other expats. My wife did see some reports on CNN well after I made the post, but did little to advance the details.

I did see it was report that the bus driver was overtaking, as was the jeepney, lbut in any case why are we having this type of discussion, it is the result that is relevant.

Whether it is 20 or 29 it does not matter, whether there were people on the roof of the Jeepney or not, does not matter (although if as you say there were 29 in the Jeepney, they probably were, as it would be rather crowded).

I reported what was told to me, it is still an appalling and horrendous incident. I note there has been no apparent response or action by the Government. 

It would seem that the Police investigation is of the same standard as usual. Just shows that expats are not the only ones that get the rough end of the pineapple at times. So far as bus company not handing over their bus cam footage, that is disgusting in itself and Police should be obtaining a warrant and serving it on the bus company - not rocket science.


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## DonAndAbby (Jan 7, 2013)

Here is a report with the videos:






After looking at it again, it would appear to me that the jeepney driver fell asleep. He swerved left and the SUV in front of the bus had to swerve to avoid him, and then the jeepney drove straight into the bus without braking or swerving.


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## Johnny B (May 27, 2013)

I too have searched the stats for annual road deaths to no avail, but would be confident with Mogo51's 10k+... I am more familiar with the Bohol roads and every time I come here I am still shocked. Yesterday I saw an SUV taking over an SUV that was taking over something else, all three in a row bombing down the road... My bus, one of the large ones, traveled at high speed at night through populated areas(side doors were open for the entire journey, suppose lucky they could actually open). As for the small vans(mini buses), driven insanely then just when you thought it was tight, they will stick another 3,4,5 passengers in there, why is this allowed and why do Philippinos not see the problem?


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## Manitoba (Jun 25, 2014)

Let’s look at some numbers, shall we?

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

All from 2013 reporting year.

Annual Death Rate per 100 k population

Philippine	10.5
Canada 6.0
USA 10.6
UK 2.9
Australia	5.4

The Philippine death rate per 100,000 population was better than the world average (17.4), Africa (26.6) Eastern Mediterranean (19.9) Western Pacific (17.3) SE Asia (17.0) the Americas (15.9) and was only bested by the Europe average (9.3)

Per 100,000 vehicles

Philippine	135
Canada 9.5
USA 12.9
UK 5.1
Australia	7.3

Local total was 10,379

I trust that the other countries numbers include all traffic-related deaths but doubt if the Philippine number included 100% of all traffic deaths, especially from the remote provinces. Wiki indicates that there was some adjustment for underreporting.

However even as bad as they drive here the reported death rate is less than in the USA.

Some probable causes/factors:

Western drivers can drive on freeways and open highways at higher speeds. Increasing accident severity there but decreasing accident frequency as these are usually well-designed roads.

Vehicle maintenance is lower here than I what I have seen in the west. 

In Canada, USA and Australia more distance driven due to bigger countries. (I would have included deaths per billion kms drives but that data was n/a for the Philippines)

Philippine emergency medicine is not as good as other countries resulting in more deaths that would survive in the western countries.

Local vehicles tend to have a lot of passengers in them resulting in multiple fatalities per accident as we saw over Xmas. 

Fewer Philippinos own vehicles and not many own multiple vehicles, compared to the West. This results in the much higher death rate per 100,000 vehicles. 

Less driver education and poor license controls here (People can still pay the “no test” fee and get a license without any testing at all.) Vehicle safety inspections nonexistent here. 

Seatbelt laws, only front seat here and not enforced, other countries all occupants and enforced.

More motorcycles here. Helmet laws not enforced, especially outside of Manila. (Not sure what the helmet law is here.)

Lax traffic enforcement here. In the few traffic stops I have actually seen in here, it is not uncommon to see 500 and 1000 p notes being passed to the police. Openly and in daylight with many people walking past in Manila. Try that in the west and you will be in handcuffs.


Quite frankly, given how they drive here, the condition of the roads, the unmaintained vehicles on the road and lax law enforcement I was really surprised at how low the death rate per 100,000 population was. Also Americans with their higher death rate per population (but based on more complete reporting) really have nothing to brag about either.


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## mogo51 (Jun 11, 2011)

​


Johnny B said:


> I too have searched the stats for annual road deaths to no avail, but would be confident with Mogo51's 10k+... I am more familiar with the Bohol roads and every time I come here I am still shocked. Yesterday I saw an SUV taking over an SUV that was taking over something else, all three in a row bombing down the road... My bus, one of the large ones, traveled at high speed at night through populated areas(side doors were open for the entire journey, suppose lucky they could actually open). As for the small vans(mini buses), driven insanely then just when you thought it was tight, they will stick another 3,4,5 passengers in there, why is this allowed and why do Philippinos not see the problem?


What you describe is just every day attitude to 'road safety' or should I say 'total disregard' for road safety. It comes back to lack of driver training, poor road conditions, lack of enforcement and inaction by authorities.
Everytime I want to turn right into my village laneway, I check about 4 times to make sure some idiot from well back is not roaring down the road overtaking without any regard for other traffic. The fact you have a blinker on, means nothing!!!


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## Zep (Jun 8, 2017)

Manitoba said:


> Annual Death Rate per 100 k population
> 
> Philippine	10.5
> Canada 6.0
> ...


Not sure you can compare the 10.5 of the PI to the 10.6 of the US and say it is better. In the US out of a population of 100K I would say all 100K will ride in a car every week. In the PI maybe only 10% of that 100k may ever ride in a car or motor vehicle. Granted in Manila it would be much higher percentage of riders but the speeds are max of 20kph, not deadly.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

Zep said:


> Not sure you can compare the 10.5 of the PI to the 10.6 of the US and say it is better. In the US out of a population of 100K I would say all 100K will ride in a car every week. In the PI maybe only 10% of that 100k may ever ride in a car or motor vehicle. Granted in Manila it would be much higher percentage of riders but the speeds are max of 20kph, not deadly.


Parity at this level (first/third world) becomes arguable but really irrelevant, the sad state is really the needless loss of life no matter the country nor the frequency. Education, laws and respect play their roles in all countries. OMO.

Cheers, Steve.


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## mogo51 (Jun 11, 2011)

Yes that seems to be what happened.


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## Tiz (Jan 23, 2016)

Manitoba said:


> Annual Death Rate per 100 k population
> 
> Philippine	10.5
> Canada 6.0
> ...


Interesting stats.
I wonder why USA is so much worse than both Aus and Canada?


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## mogo51 (Jun 11, 2011)

bigpearl said:


> Parity at this level (first/third world) becomes arguable but really irrelevant, the sad state is really the needless loss of life no matter the country nor the frequency. Education, laws and respect play their roles in all countries. OMO.
> 
> Cheers, Steve.


Absolutely Steve, stats like people, lie and are only as good as the people inputting the information. 
In the Philippines I doubt that it is done in an honest and accurate basis. For example, in Thailand, if they make it to the hospital or die a few days later, they are not included.
Given that I see the Police here doing very little 99% of the time, I doubt they would be too keen or interested in supplying accurate statistics.


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## Manitoba (Jun 25, 2014)

Zep said:


> Not sure you can compare the 10.5 of the PI to the 10.6 of the US and say it is better. In the US out of a population of 100K I would say all 100K will ride in a car every week. In the PI maybe only 10% of that 100k may ever ride in a car or motor vehicle. Granted in Manila it would be much higher percentage of riders but the speeds are max of 20kph, not deadly.


I agree that a better stat to compare would be the death toll per billion km driven but that was not reported for the Philippines.

Still, the US toll when compared to the other countries is much higher, even with the superbly designed interstate system.


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## bigpearl (Jan 24, 2016)

mogo51 said:


> Absolutely Steve, stats like people, lie and are only as good as the people inputting the information.
> In the Philippines I doubt that it is done in an honest and accurate basis. For example, in Thailand, if they make it to the hospital or die a few days later, they are not included.
> Given that I see the Police here doing very little 99% of the time, I doubt they would be too keen or interested in supplying accurate statistics.


Statistics (not only on this topic) are most times Bias and rarely transparent (lack of information) and conceived for a purpose perhaps naive or motivated for different agendas be they. Political or scare mongering.
Accurate accounts need/should have the same/equal measuring systems world wide and not here say.

https://www.google.com.au/search?cl...UTF-8&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=GhhbWtXVKOTDXtv_mNAJ

Per capita, a simple expression with an even simpler meaning. All the info we research gives a number, per 100 or a million, easy and accurate, the rest of the data comes willy nilly with no or limited scientific data to back it up or even the method to arrive at what is really a conclusion by the author/government body or myself.

No matter the country or ranking and this is only an opinion should read something like:
For every 100K pax in that country that own XYZ vehicles and has XYZ deaths. The figures would dramatically change around the globe.
Even keel or as Ron suggests honesty based on a globally agreed/accepted method, certainly not some bureaucrat giving figures based on what his country wants to hear.
Unified? Nope. All my research reveals 10 or 20 different ways to express ones desired result accepted by the masses. That aside.

My experience, like others see that driving in PH is fraught with danger no different to any other country I and perhaps you have had the balls to drive in. Personally Greece is worse than PH. Relax, breathe and go with the flow. After all of the above rants/opinion I intend to retire, be alert and hope dearly to not become one of the statistics for some wan**r to add to yet another inaccurate "supposedly" level playing field with vastly different results.

Only my Opinion/view.

Cheers, Steve.


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## Manitoba (Jun 25, 2014)

Tiz said:


> Interesting stats.
> I wonder why USA is so much worse than both Aus and Canada?


A better comparison would be death rate per billion kms driven. I omitted it because the Philippines did not report that stat.

Canada 6.2
USA 7.1
Austrailia 5.2
UK 3.6

In this, the US does not look as bad. Given that Canada and Australia also have some long distances to drive they are a better comparison than the UK where the geography is not as vast. As mentioned above since a lot of Philippino don't ride daily in vehicles and the roads are not as conducive to long road trips here, I would think that the Plocal stat would be off the charts.

Some suggestions are given in these articles

https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2016/11/30/13784520/roads-deaths-increase-safety-traffic-us

Why more people are suddenly dying on U.S. roads - Aug. 31, 2016

However, a lot of the factors cited in these articles( the economy, low gas prices, distracted driving) are not unique to the US. 

I am not sure about the US and Austrailia but I do know that speed limits are higher in the US than in Canada ( We are mostly limited to 100 kms per hour while the I29 just to the south of my hometown is 120 kph. Not sure of speed limits off the interstate.)

I think a lot of it comes to road design standards. In the US roads are designed to maximize traffic speed and flow while in other countries the roads are designed with consideration of other users, walking, bikes etc. more so than in the US.

From the Vox article
_
The evidence is mounting that the long-term structural deficits in planning and engineering are a major reason why we have become such an outlier in terms of traffic fatalities. _

That will be something that will take a long time and dedicated effort to fix.

Medical care may also play a factor. In the other countries ( other than the Philippines) you show up at a hospital injured and treatment is automatic with coverage questions second. In the US or here if you are taken to a hospital unless it is critical and you are not stabilized then insurance coverage is first before treatment. No coverage means no treatment other than essential life saving treatment,


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