FILIPINOS are known to be ultra-defensive drivers because of the road situation in our country.
In a recent survey, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) discovered that road crashes ranked fifth as the cause of death among Filipinos. Heart disease and diabetes topped the list.
Most of these deaths come from motorcycles and then public transportation.
Plenty of road advocates have been screaming this fact for years now, warning that if our authorities do not properly address our road situation, numbers will only continue to rise.
There are quite a number of factors that cause our roads to be dangerous to those using them.
Some of these will include bad road conditions, lack of proper road signs, almost zero driver discipline, and an almost a non-existing road rule enforcement.
During the past administration, a number of measures were implemented such as the Continuing Driver Education program and the Motor Vehicle Inspection System.
Sad to say, instead of being the ones to understand and promote these road safety and discipline efforts, many of our government people chose to criticize and demand to have them stopped.
Congress and Senate took turns investigating these programs and calling them anti-poor, the favorite cry of disruptive leftist or militant groups.
Now we are back to having unsafe buses crashing off cliffs or motorbikes slamming into trucks because of defective vehicles or unruly riders.
Our leaders must realize that road safety and discipline is not only an issue of the rich. Road crashes will kill people, rich or poor.
And the less able part of society are more affected by this dreadful situation because they do not have access to safe, private, properly maintained motor vehicles since the biggest part of ill-maintained vehicles come from the public transportation sector.
