By KAREN TIONGSON-MAYRINA, GMA News Research The accident that killed former Social Welfare secretary Dulce Saguisag took place early Thursday morning at the corner of President Sergio Osmeña Highway (South Superhighway) and Antonio Arnaiz Avenue (formerly Pasay Road) in Makati City. Records from the MMDA’s Metropolitan Road Safety Unit show that 68 accidents happened at that particular intersection from January to September this year. So far, the road accidents in that intersection took at least two lives this year, including that of Saguisag. Still, the Osmeña-Arnaiz junction is not in the MMDA’s list of “blackspots" or accident-prone areas. For the first half of the year, 30,001 vehicular accidents occurred in Metro Manila streets. These accidents claimed the lives of 172 people and injured 5,412 others. This means that around 166 road accidents take place in the metropolis every day. A car, bus, truck or jeep kills one person almost every day and maims around 30. The figures are culled from the MMDA’s Metro Manila Accident Reporting and Analysis System (MMRAS) annual report that covers January to June 2007 only. Last year, the MMDA recorded more than 60,000 road accidents in the whole of 2006. Number of accidents gathered from January to June 2007 by month

Month	Damage	Fatal	Non Fatal	Total
January	3,819	37	914	4,770
February	4,012	34	869	4,915
March	4,164	24	879	5,067
April	3,874	21	861	4,756
May	4,313	28	933	5,274
June	4,235	28	956	5,219
Total	24,417	172	5,412	30,001

The MMDA study compiled reports from the Traffic Enforcement Group and newspaper clips. The MMRAS analysis shows that when these accidents occur, more than half the fatalities are pedestrians, followed by the drivers of vehicles. Fatalities

District	Drivers Killed	Passengers Killed	Pedestrians Killed	Total Killed
Central	10	6	27	43
Eastern	9	8	16	33
Northern	12	3	10	25
Southern	15	8	29	52
Western	9	0	14	23
Total	55 – 31.25%	25 – 14.20%	96 – 54.55%	176 – 100%

Injuries

District	Drivers Injured	Passengers Injured	Pedestrians Injured	Total Injured
Central	716	738	610	2064
Eastern	592	372	376	1340
Northern	334	310	285	929
Southern	647	487	788	1922
Western	188	192	69	953
Total	2,477-34.36%	2,099-29.12%	2,128-29.52%	7,208-100%

Most of the accidents—68.74 percent-- occurred at daytime. Although those that occurred during the night time and early morning hours are only at 31.26 percent, the report notes that the number may still be “considered high" and strongly advised drivers and pedestrians to be careful during these hours. Breakdown by time of day

Time (hour)		Damage		Fatal		Non-Fatal Injury		Total Incidents
00		387		4		102		493
01		318		6		129		453
02		339		11		121		471
03		289		3		108		400
04		381		5		126		512
05		434		9		128		571
06		634		5		159		798
07		977		1		216		1194
08		1194		2		247		1443
09		1359		12		279		1650
10		1701		12		271		1984
11		1679		7		297		1983
12		1394		7		300		1701
13		1326		1		236		1563
14		1516		9		256		1781
15		1648		5		275		1928
16		1498		6		304		1808
17		1276		6		313		1595
18		933		9		253		1195
19		1185		8		246		1439
20		1014		12		261		1287
21		1016		6		240		1262
22		846		11		214		1071
23		656		10		179		845
(blank)		417		5		152		574 - 01.91%
Grand Total		24417		172		5412		30,001 – 100.00%
	Day-time (6:00-18:00)		16,501-55.00%		82–00.27%		3,406–11.35%		20,623 – 68.74%
	Night-time (18:00 – 6:00)		7,916-26.39%		90–00.29%		2,006-6.69%		9,378 – 31.26%

Makati City has the second most number of traffic accidents at 11.64 percent in Metro Manila in the first half of the year. Quezon City, which has the biggest land areas among the cities in Metro Manila, got the lion’s share at 28.24 percent of the traffic accidents. MMRAS noted that both Quezon and Makati cities are central business districts with high social and economic activity. Major thoroughfares such as Edsa, Commonwealth Avenue and C-5 are located within these cities. Quezon City remains the most dangerous place in Metro Manila as far as traffic accidents are concerned. It had the most number of accidents last year at 17,292 recorded road mishaps or 28.37 percent of all NCR traffic accidents. Pateros and Navotas are considered as the “safest" places in Metro Manila because of the small number of road accidents. MMRAS attributed this to their small land area within NCR. There is also no major arterial road in these areas compared to the other cities and, thus, traffic direction is manageable. The two towns are also not considered as central business districts. Distribution of accidents by cities and municipalities in Metro Manila from January-June 2007

City	Damage	Fatal	Non Fatal Injury	Grand Total	%
Caloocan	1002	16	411	1429	4.76
Las Piñas	1269	3	271	1543	5.14
Makati	3044	10	438	3492	11.64
Malabon	239	2	111	352	1.17
Mandaluyong	1099		76	1175	3.92
Manila	1765	23	297	2085	6.95
Marikina	1096	19	540	1655	5.52
Muntinlupa	1499	5	232	1736	5.79
Navotas	99	2	16	117	0.39
Parañaque	1464	11	251	1726	5.75
Pasay	1100	5	198	1303	4.34
Pasig	2132	10	363	2505	8.35
Pateros	56		18	74	0.25
Quezon	6810	42	1620	8472	28.24
San Juan	717	3	132	852	2.84
Taguig	706	16	301	1023	3.41
Valenzuela	320	5	137	462	1.54
Grand Total	24417	172	5412	30001	100%