There were more than 9,000 vehicular accidents across the country in the first three months of this year, record from the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) revealed as it added that most of the road mishaps were caused by overspeeding.

Of the 9,279 road accidents recorded, cars were involved in the most number of traffic accidents with 3,698 cases, followed by motorcycles with 2,529 cases.

Passenger buses placed third in the list of cases involving road accidents, with 991 cases during the January-March period.
 
The Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group leadership, backed up by the Department of Interior and Local Government is pushing for the strict implementation of a law prescribing a maximum allowable speed limit for certain types of vehicles.

Under Republic Act 4136, or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code, passenger cars and motorcycles have a maximum allowable speed limit of 80 kilometer per hour while 50 kilometer per hour for trucks and buses in open country roads “with no blind corners not closely bordered by habitation."

On “through” streets or boulevards clear of traffic with no blind corners, the limits are 40 km/hr for passenger cars and motorcycles, and 30 km/hr for trucks and buses.

On city and municipal streets with light traffic and not designated as through streets, the speed limit for cars, motorcycles, trucks, and buses is 30 km/hr.

For crowded streets “approaching intersections at blind corners, passing school zones, passing other vehicles which are stationary or for similar dangerous circumstances,” maximum allowable speeds are 30 km/hr for cars and motorcycles and 20 km/hr for trucks and buses.

At midnight on Monday, nine people were killed while 41 others were injured when a passenger bus hit another passenger bus in Lucena City, angering no less than President Arroyo who immediately ordered to map out means to reduce road accidents.

Other measures being eyed so far is the deployment of more traffic cops in the highways and major thoroughfares and massive crackdown on traffic violators.