Today around noon we stopped at a take out eatery between the Shell and Petron stations on South hiway. Two smashed cars were parked across the street and looked like they hit head on. An SUV and a smallish car. The girl at the eatery told my wife two foreigners collided and at least one was taken to the hospital. She said one lived near Bahura in Dauin. Not sure how serious but hope the are okay.
A little information..not much I drove by the scene of the accident shortly after it happened, but long enough for about 30 locals to be surrounding the scene, They motioned for the car in front of me and myself to move on. Since I am not fluent, I figured I could not learn anything so I went on since the crowd seem to be a little frantic. It must have been a noisy crash as there were people standing along side the road outside their houses for about 200 yards as I continued south. The people involved seemed to be standing outside the car and van. It was very early in the morning, and almost no one on the national highway at the time, so how these two collided is an amazing feat to me. The Red sedan was headed north, and the white van was headed south. The vehicles were still parked on the road way there today. Sorry even though I was there it, is only my visual observations as I passed, by historic information gathering from the locals would have been difficult since they did not seem to be much English there at the time. This is the second accident I have seen along that stretch of road in about two weeks, the other being a young lady had been hit by a car, about December 23, and I have even less information on that incident.
The orange car was driven by an American who is well known in the bars in the area. He lives locally but used to live in Dauin. He was slightly injured but refused hospital treatment. The other car driver was in hospital he and his companions are all Philippino. Not surprisingly alcohol played a factor in the accident.
I would bet one of the cars was passing another vehicle (pedicab, motorcyle, etc..) and either didn't look to see if anyone was coming, or didn't allow enough time before hitting....alcohol would definitely play a role in this.........BUT, I HAVE noticed that some folks here, when they drive a car, like to drive their cars the same way they drive their motorcycles, zipping in and out of traffic without using any common sense at all.
hard to believe they could find each other to collide As I stated previously, there was almost no traffic on the road a the time of night it happened, which is why I was surprised there was any collision between two cars. How could these guy actually find each other to crash? They almost had to be looking for another car to make this accident happen. I am not familiar with traffic laws or regulations here but it would seem if you were drunk, then you may not want to go to hospital. It certainly appears to have needed the extra ingredient of some sort of mind altering substance to make this happen. It certainly is a good warning to assume that the other guy driving is crazy, or drunk or both.
and with that...expect more and more road accident in this area. If not drunk while driving, it would be the innocent of driving rules and regulation. As I always said, most drivers here are fun of double over taking.
From the latest story going around, the driver of the white SUV fell asleep at the wheel, crossed over the centre line and hit the 'mericano's car head on. Apparently witnessed by the owner of Big Boy's liquor store near the accident scene.
