Huli ka!

A motorcycle rammed into a taxi at the Quezon Ave. underpass earlier today after the driver of the taxi stopped suddenly to gawk at a film crew shooting a movie. The driver of the motorcycle suffered cuts and bruises after being thrown off, while the cab driver was arrested for "reckless imprudence resulting to serious physical injury for being too curious". Read about it here.

Bwahahahaha!

Police car involved in accident
A jeepney crashed into the side of a police car at the corner of Aurora and Balete around 11:30am today. According to the jeepney driver, the police car allegedly beat the red light. Also, he claims that the blinker and siren were only turned on after the accident. Anyway, the traffic investigator said that the jeepney driver may be charged with "reckless imprudence resulting in multiple injuries and damage to government property."

I actually believe the jeepney driver's story. I've seen too many police vehicles, both cars and motorcycles, ignoring stoplights, no left turns, no u-turns, one ways, etc., for no particular reason aside from their own convenience.

Impounded taxis found to have tampered engine numbers
The LTO has reported that 14 out of 85 taxis currently impounded were found to have tampered engine and chassis numbers, leading them to believe that these were stolen.

For details on the plate, engine and chassis numbers of these taxis, check out the article. You never know, you might find your long, lost, stolen vehicle.

MMDA and Pasay fight over DFA parking
Pasay mayor Peewee Trinidad criticized the MMDA after 8 MMDA enforcers issued tickets to 42 vehicles belonging to officials, employees and visitors of the DFA parked on the service road of Roxas Blvd. According to the mayor, that area has long been used as a parking area by the DFA, and is supposedly covered by a city ordinance that provides free parking to DFA officials, employees and visitors. The Pasay Traffic and Parking Management Office wanted to file a case against the 8 enforcers but backed off after the enforcers took back the tickets they issued. MMDA chariman Bayani Fernando responded that if their enforcers were arrested, they would file their own charges.

In the first place, the DFA should develop their own parking area. Roxas Blvd. is one of the metro's major thoroughfares and experiences heavy traffic all the time. Isn't the public interest more important than the convenience of these officials?

A bus rammed the center island and several vehicles late yesterday morning at the Coastal Road in Paranaque. Again, defective brakes were to blame. Buti na lang walang namatay, at least as of press time.

Calling LTFRB! Calling LTO! Please do your jobs! Or does their charter not include ensuring public safety for the country's commuters?

Here are a couple of news links on this, one from the Inquirer, and another from GMA News.

Five separate accidents caused by two trucks and three buses, resulting in five deaths and sixty injured, all in one day at the NLEX. And the best they can do is advise these truck and bus drivers to check their vehicles before they travel?!?

Check out the Inquirer article here.

The LTO and LTFRB should really take a proactive stance in making sure that these truck and bus companies maintain their vehicles properly. Inspections should be expanded to include vehicle condition and roadworthiness, and frequency should be increased to at least every six, or better yet, every three months. In fact, they should also include all public utility vehicles in this program. This will also give them a chance to trim down on the number of public utility vehicles, especially those traveling on EDSA.

How many people have to die before the government does something about this?

A flatbed truck rear-ended another flatbed truck right in the middle of the southbound lane of the EDSA-Ortigas flyover. Caused a little bit of traffic, with all the debris and everything.
Anyway, I know they're just doing their jobs, but these counterflowing, parked MMDA vehicles were'nt helping any. They should have just parked on the same lane as the trucks, so oncoming vehicles wouldn't have to suddenly swerve to the middle lane to avoid them.

Southbound SLEX was really bad beginning from where the yellow lane starts before the Sucat exit. This was caused by three separate incidents.

The first was a truck broken down right around the Sucat exit. A tow truck was already there, connecting the broken down truck to the harness.
The second was an accident between a bus and a Civic, just after the Sucat exit. A highway patrol guy was already there, and the bus just pulled to the side. To be honest about it, this was probably caused by these vehicles avoiding the broken down truck.
The last one was an accident on the West Service Rd. A truck had it's load fall down on the fence.The Filipino's penchant for being usi reigned, slowing down traffic even if the load did not really spill over much to the SLEX.

It was kinda traffic northbound on SLEX this afternoon because of a couple of accidents.

First, a Ford F-150 rear ended a Toyota Vios midway between Alabang and Sucat.
The next one involved a Toyota Revo and a Kia AUV near Shell Magallanes.
Anyway, kawawa naman sila. But a little caution while driving and getting regular maintenance for your vehicle really goes a long way in reducing the chances of getting into one.

Here are pics of a couple of accidents seen on EDSA tonight.

This first one seems like the driver was attempting the "driving on two wheels" stunt that you see on movies.
This next one involved three vehicles, a tanker, a Vios and an Innova (I think). This happened right before the ongoing construction on the stretch of EDSA between Estrella and Buendia. Probably a result of tailgating, coupled by the typical walang bigayan attitude.

These two incidents, which were around 200m from each other, caused a lot of traffic on SLEX this morning.
Anyway, there seemed to be too many Skyway Patrol people helping the Terrano, while not enough were helping vehicles get around the accident. That's prioritization for you.

Here's another fender-bender that added to the terrible traffic on EDSA.
Wala kasi'ng bigayan kaya umaabot sa banggaan.

...if you don't follow the laws.
I think this used to be a Galant.

Yet another accident, this time at EDSA-Santolan.
Kung marunong bang magbigayan itong mga 'to, naiwasan na sana 'tong mga pangyayaring 'to.

This accident caused a minor traffic jam at Pasong Tamo leading towards EDSA in the afternoon.
Anyway, I'm not really sure how long it had been since the accident actually occurred, but I would just like to say that at least the traffic enforcer had the presence of mind to have the vehicles involved moved to the side of the road.

Saw this three-car accident at the foot of the flyover at C5-Pasig at 6:31pm. Caused a hell of a lot of traffic until the Kalayaan intersection.
Anyway, this particular spot is actually quite accident-prone, with three (sometimes, four) lanes merging into two. Again, with proper driving discipline and courtesy, minor accidents such as these can definitely be avoided.

This pic was taken at C5 last Friday, October 7, at 7:27pm.
Well, if everyone followed the rules, then incidents like these would be so much easier to avoid.

Saw this unfortunate accident last Monday, September 19, on Pasong Tamo-Herrera intersection.
Hopefully, nobody was hurt. However, I bet that if these guys were following the rules, then this wouldn't have happened at all.