7.2.

5 Present Situation
Most developed countries have been successful in reducing accident rates, but the rates
remain unchecked in many developing countries. Relative to other countries, the Philippine
accident rate of about 6.0 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles appears to show a better image of road
safety condition. However, this figure may be misleading, considering the high incidence of
severe
accidents that have been reported in the newspapers. Are all these accidents accounted for?
Do we
have a good system of recording accidents? For what purposes are we compiling accident
records?
How are data kept? Are these data readily available to traffic engineers and planners
responsible
for analysis and for improving our transportation infrastructure? The lack of definite answers to
these questions reflects how little priority is given to road safety.
When the Philippine situation is compared with that of other ASEAN countries, again
statistics may be deceiving and tend to make us complacent about our situation. In reality, there
is
much discrepancy between statistics and the actual situation.