HPG pushes road crash probe unit

The Philippine National Police’s Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) is pushing for the creation of a road crash investigation division (RCID) as deaths from vehicular accidents in 2016 rose by more than 100 percent.

HPG director Chief Superintendent Arnel Escobal said in their proposal, the RCID would probe traffic accidents using the scientific method and forensics.

“We are proposing the creation of this unit in order for us to determine what really causes these accidents,” Escobal said.

The plan is to hire six en- gineers for the team and train them in traffic management.

The reason Escobal wants an investigating team composed of technical experts is they also want to probe private and public utility vehicles involved in road crashes to determine if these are properly maintained.

“We do not want to call these as accidents but road crashes because we want to impose more liabilities on the drivers,” he said.

The HPG recorded 2,144 deaths from at least 32,000 vehicular accidents in 2016, majority of which were caused by reckless driving.

Data showed the number of fatalities last year is 106.15 percent higher compared to 1,040 deaths in 2015. The number of vehicular mishaps, meanwhile, rose by 30.87 percent, from 24,656 in 2015 to 32,269 the following year.

The road accidents in 2016 also left 15,747 persons injured and caused 27,630 cases of damage to property.

Meanwhile, 1,380 people were killed in 18,858 vehicular accidents from January to August this year, more than half compared to number of deaths in the whole of last year.

Of the overall number of vehicular accidents, 18,501 or 57.33 percent occurred during the day while 13,768 or 42.66 percent happened at night.

HPG records show that 26,623 cases or 82.50 percent were caused by reckless driving such as bad turning, improper overtaking, speeding and drunk driving.

The rest were caused by mechanical problems, with 2,524 cases or 7.82 percent followed by poor road conditions with 2,325 incidents or 7.20 percent. The remaining 797 cases or 2.46 percent had other causes.