Car Accident Law Philippines: Essential For Every Driver

Car Accident Law in the Philippines

Article V, Section 55 - Duty of driver in case of an accident

The driver of the vehicle involved in an accident must do these follow at that instance:

The driver must provide their driver's license, real name, and address. Suppose the vehicle does not belong to them; in that case, they still have to give the same information about the vehicle's valid owner.

The vehicle involved in the accident is not allowed to leave the accident's premises. However, there will be exceptions for the driver's part in some cases : 

• The driver could leave immediately if she/he is suffering from imminent danger caused by the crash or by anyone involved in it. Alternatively, they could get away from the scene if someone wants to hurt them.
• The driver is allowed to leave the accident scene to report at the nearest office of law. If the driver wishes to stay instead, there are quite a few Philippine emergency hotline numbers they could use.
• Same as the point above, the driver could flee from the scene to contact emergency medical services and seek help for the victim of the accident. They could also use the emergency number to reach medical help.

Article V, Section 48 - Reckless driving

A person could only drive a car once they've reasonable considering the roads and highway conditions. Meaning it includes traffic (from other vehicles), the road's width, the road curvature, pedestrian crossings, intersections, visibility, and even the weather. 

Furthermore, the driving manner that dangers other motorists, property, and even the road.

Speed Limit Law is one of the most well-known examples of reckless driving in the Philippines. It included driving above the speed limit in certain areas, even if there are signs for the speed limit on the road's side or not. Philippine law also considers drunk driving and distracted driving are reckless driving.

Car Accident Law in the Philippines: Legal advice 

When reckless driving resulted in death and damage to property, what are there to do?

Here is an example of an accident between a motorcycle and a four-wheeled vehicle that end up in death: 

On January 25, 1997, Mr. Rogelio Gonzaga was found to have been speeding his Hyundai Accent on the left lane when he collided with a motorcycle driven by Dionesio Inguito, Sr. through an investigation.

On the motorcycle at the time, there were also his children - Cherry Inguito and Dionesio Jr. Both of them were minor.

They were on their way to school and drove on their right side on the road. This accident resulted in Dionesio, Sr, and his children taking injuries to their legs. While the citizens gave them aid, Rogelio stayed inside his Hyundai Accent the entire time.

The victims were rushed to the Emergency Hospital of Maramag for treatment. Unlike Cherry and Dionesio Jr., who stayed in the hospital for a month, the motorcycle driver - Dionesio Sr., had died due to his injuries.

Rogelio Gonzaga was found guilty of Reckless Imprudence Resulting in Homicide with Double Serious Physical Injuries and Damage to Property under Article 365 regarding Article 263 of the Revised Penal Code. (July 31, 2006 Decision) by the provincial prosecutor and the Regional Trial Court.

If you were in Rogelio's shoes, this is when you'd hire a good car accident lawyer.

Since the fact that Rogelio was indeed fast driving on the wrong side of the road, causing the collision which in turn had caused the death of Dionesio Sr. and injured his children was verified, The Regional Trial Court sentenced Rogelio to four years and two months as a minimum to eight years and one day as a maximum

The court also ordered him to pay up a total of Php 395,000 for Mr. Dionesio Inguito Sr.'s family for all the damage they have suffered, and Php 30,000 for attorney's fees.

Rogelio filed a motion of reconsideration, saying he extended help to the victims. He stated he was the one who provided the jack handle for the extraction of Dionesio Sr.'s body from under the Hyundai Accent.

Rogelio's petition got denied because, according to RTC, it lacked merits since he was apathetic toward the accident's whole situation. Furthermore, his driving manner is what caused the accident in the first place. But his sentence lessened thanks to Cherry Inguito. In her testimony, she stated that Rogelio indeed tried to bring the injured three to the hospital with his Hyundai car. 

Still, the car's brakes got heavily damaged because of the crash; therefore, they have to use a Brgy Kagawad's vehicle to go to the hospital.

There is an assumption that the larger vehicle is always liable and automatically at fault when an accident happens. It's certainly not true, because there is no information about this indicated in the Philippines's law. It's a requirement to have evidence and an analysis of the circumstances to establish who is at fault.

There are only two concrete presumptions on motor-vehicles from the civil code as of right now:

1. Unless there is evidence to prove otherwise, a person is believed to be negligent if they violate traffic regulations at the time of the accident. 
2. If the driver violates traffic regulations and recklessly drives at least twice within the next two months (Article 2184 of the Civil Code), they can be presumed negligent.

However, there is something called the doctrine of last clear chance. In cases that both were negligent and couldn't be determined which one did it before and caused the mishap, the fault lies on who had a more apparent chance of avoiding the accident. 

The doctrine of rule of evidence enacted once the object caused the incident was under the defendant's control, i.e., Rogelio and his Land Cruiser. It means the accident had happened only due to a careless act, or the plaintiff's behavior was proven to didn't aided in the incident when the accident occurred.

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Conclusion

That is for our article about Car accident law in the Philippines! We hope you have found more details about the basic dos and don'ts while driving a vehicle by reading this.

There are many other laws involving car accident laws in the Philippines, like the Insurance Code, more sections of the Civil Code, and the Traffic code. Stay tuned for more informative articles from Philhyundai.com! Drive safe and good luck on your journey!