Road bullies, too

We marked All Souls Day yesterday starting the week in hellish traffic in Metro Manila. Offices and classes resumed after a long weekend and so everybody was back on the road. That’s why. But why should this happen when there is supposed to be national and local government agencies in charge of traffic management?

My column last Monday about “road bullies” drew a lot of comments from fellow harassed motorists. One comment validly raised the issue of competence of government agencies. What emboldens these “road bullies” to go on their nasty ways is the fact that they get away with it because nobody stops them on the road. 

As I’ve said in that piece, first on my list of “road bullies” are the bus drivers who use the sheer size of their buses to hog the road. I was reminded that I should have included drivers of container trucks, 10-wheelers, and other long vehicles that you must try to avoid on the road if you want to remain alive. I completely agree.

These container trucks, with their monstrous size and monster-like drivers, race their vehicles as if there are no other smaller vehicles in front, beside them, or behind them. And this happens right in front of traffic cops and Metro traffic aides posted in these areas. Yes, they act like “post” and not as traffic cops or traffic aides.

Aside from the fact they are driven by “road bullies,” many of these container trucks are also not well maintained. I should know this because it’s an everyday experience for me to see them ply the roads in my usual routes along Roxas Blvd. going to Bonifacio Drive leading all the way to North Harbor and Port Area where The STAR editorial office is located. Don’t ever stray into their paths or you get crashed and worse, crushed.

And if I leave the office at around 8 o’clock in the evening, I run the risk of being clogged up in Bonifacio Drive. It’s because the whole stretch become one huge lot of double-parked container vans waiting for the truck ban hours to pass at 9 p.m.  

Another reader commented that I should have also included motorcycles as “road bullies” for their reckless weaving in and out of lanes. But as a transport vehicle, motorcycles are the most disadvantaged in terms of size compared to sturdier vehicles like buses, jeepneys and motorized tricycles.

So to me, motorcycle riders belong to a different category all together. I would classify them as “daredevils” of the road. They are “daredevils” in the sense that motorcycle riders ignore the risks inherent to a two-wheeled vehicle with two or more passengers on board running in the middle of busy roads.     

From official records of the Department of Health (DOH), motorcycles are the vehicles that have the most number of deaths and injuries due to vehicular accidents in the Philippines. From the data gathered by the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) of the DOH, motorcycle accidents accounted for the highest deaths and injuries treated in different government hospitals in the first half of this year.

Of the total 2,015 vehicular accident-related injuries from April to June, it showed that the motorcycle was the vehicle used by 53.6 percent of patients who sustained injuries.

On the same records from 55 DOH-run hospitals nationwide, it showed that a high 18.8 percent of those who died on the spot after the vehicular accidents were motorcycle occupants.

A high 89 percent of those injured motorcycle riders had no helmets. And yet, during that period we already have a Congress-approved ”Helmet Law” that penalizes non-wearing of helmets by motorcycle riders and their passengers.

Republic Act 10054, approved into law on March 23 this year, mandated the use of standard protective helmets and imposed a fine of Pl,500 for the first offense, P3,000 for the second offense, P5,000 for the third offense, and P10,000, plus confiscation of the driver’s license for the fourth and succeeding offenses.

Despite the high incidence of deaths and injuries resulting from motorcycle accidents, these have not apparently scared Filipinos from owning motorbikes as their mode of transport. It’s not only because motorbikes are the most maneuverable means of conveyance in traffic-riddled roads in Metro Manila. A motorcycle is also the cheapest and most affordable vehicle for Juan dela Cruz.

I gathered that a Japanese-manufactured motorcycle cost at least P60,000 a unit. Moreover, in our highly volatile gasoline prices that go up every week — gasoline prices go up more than oil companies roll back their pump prices — motorbikes do not consume much fuel. 

With heavy traffic in Metro Manila, it is no wonder why the number of motorcycles on the roads has gone up. Instead of widening the roads, some idiotic local government officials cause traffic rather than solving them.

It boggles the mind of us, motoring public why a national road like that in front of Baclaran Church designated as bus lanes was closed to traffic. It was taken over by vendors and hawkers who are now occupying the entire road. This horrible situation greeted motorists yesterday morning when buses were all jammed up in the multi-lanes of Roxas Blvd.

The dedicated bus lanes in front of Baclaran Church were put up during the time of former Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Bayani Fernando as a way to manage traffic flow, especially during Wednesdays for the regular Masses in Baclaran. But starting yesterday, it was transformed into a big marketplace of sorts.

I gathered the Paranaque city government approved the holding of “Agro-Fair” and gave the MMDA bus lanes for use by the participants to put up their makeshift tents there. The usual Baclaran hawkers and vendors, with their multi-colored umbrellas, occupy the other end of the road. 

As if these wide, open spaces are not enough, there are spill-over hawkers and vendors who occupy the pedestrian overpass in Baclaran. So where else would pedestrians cross the busy stretch of Baclaran? They become the jaywalkers who run for their lives crossing the streets while “road bullies” are not giving them an inch.

Safety on the road starts from motorists and pedestrians themselves. “Road bullies” should not be above the law. That’s why we have traffic law enforcers who must be there to instill road discipline and not become road bullies, too.