EDITORIAL - Pass House Bill 110

As per a report in Philstar.com, 4Ps party-list Rep. JC Abalos renewed his call for the passage of his proposed measure, House Bill 110, or the Philippine Responsible Driving and Accountability Act.

The act seeks to institutionalize fair accountability for road safety incidents so that drivers aren’t automatically held liable for road accidents where they didn’t commit negligence or traffic violation.

This renewed call came after a driver was initially held responsible after hitting a boy who fell from an LRT station along EDSA last February 11. He has since been cleared of any responsibility.

 As mentioned in the report, key provisions of the bill include clearer definitions related to driving and road incidents, aggravating and mitigating circumstances, and a reiteration of liabilities for parties involved in road safety incidents.

We are for the quick passing of this proposed measure. We have been saying for a long time that drivers shouldn’t be held responsible for accidents that they weren’t responsible for.

Aside from the LRT incident last February 11, there are other incidents where drivers were held responsible for deaths in accidents they had no control over.

There was the driver who hit a man fleeing from the police in Mindanao earlier this month. Also earlier this month a bus driver hit and killed a policeman in Barangay Inoburan, City of Naga, while trying to avoid a collision in front of him.

June of last year there was also that accident in Barangay Ubaliw, Polangui, Albay, that was technically not the fault of the driver who ended up killing someone.

Like we said in a previous editorial, the only fault they had was that they couldn’t stop a cascading series of unfortunate events. And they will face charges for “reckless imprudence resulting homicide” even though they weren’t being reckless, imprudent, or intended to commit homicide.

We have mentioned in several editorials House Bill 10196 authored by Bukidnon Rep. Jonathan Keith Flores. It’s like House Bill 110 in that it seeks to remove the blame from drivers who ended up killing people in accidents but not through their own negligence or recklessness. However, it seems this bill is already in limbo.

We hope the call to pass House Bill 110 will see better success.