Incident, not Accident

Traffic was a bit heavy near our place on the evening of January 17. This was really unusual as C5 is a big highway and there is rarely traffic near our place unless there is an accident on the road. So I presumed there was a collision again. Upon reaching the overpass just right across our guardhouse, there were shattered glasses right under the overpass. A neighbor said there was an accident. A man was badly hit by a taxi so strong an impact that the front panel was shattered into pieces.

I wouldn't want to know whether he came out alive in that INCIDENT. I searched for the word accident and here is what I got from wikipedia:

An accident is a disaster which is specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external event which occurs in a particular time and place, without apparent or deliberate cause but with marked effects. It implies a generally negative probabilistic outcome which may have been avoided or prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence.

Experts in the field of injury prevention avoid use of the term 'accident' to describe events that cause injury in an attempt to highlight the predictable and preventable nature of most injuries. Such incidents are viewed from the perspective of epidemiology - predictable and preventable.

This is why I wouldn't want to call it ACCIDENT because it never was.


These were the words of the MMDA billboard before it was stolen by highway thieves in our place. Even without those warnings, COMMON SENSE tells us all that it is PROHIBITED to cross C5 especially when there is an overpass in that area.

There are countless, IRRESPONSIBLE people in our neighborhood (and across the Philippine island) who refuse to use the overpass and would rather take their risk of dying and many got what they wish for. The incidents of death right below our overpass were countless. I don't know if I should pity them for they are irresponsible and lazy, never thinking of the little ones who will grow up without a father or mother and wives or husbands taking the burden in raising their kids alone because their partners were too lazy to go up and down the overpass. Many Filipinos lack the discipline to carry out simple task like this and yet we wonder why many Filipinos are poor. Tsk!

Being poor doesn't happen by accident. Sorry for the rant.