THE road rage incident involving a BMW and a Honda sedan at the corner of Sen. Gil Puyat Avenue and Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City on Sept. 21 occurred just three months after a family driver was shot and killed in a similar incident in the EDSA-Ayala Ave. tunnel.
In both incidents, firearms were pulled out and fired. Hothead Gerrard Raymund Yu, 34, is the suspect in the killing of driver Aniceto Mateo, 65, following a traffic altercation last May 28. The attack left a severe trauma in the child and her nurse who were riding with Mateo during that time.
In the latest road rage, the two cars met and crashed at the wide intersection, both drivers obviously driving very fast, as the airbags in one of the cars was deployed.
‘Will they just look the other way as people are being killed in the streets?’
The intersection has no traffic lights because Roxas Blvd. southbound is permanently closed. Vehicles will have to turn right, then U-turn to return to the boulevard. Meanwhile, cars coming from Makati will cross the boulevard going to the same U-turn slot. The car from Makati should have been in the leftmost lane. The car turning right from Manila should move slower, for you cannot make a right turn very fast unless you are in a car-racing circuit. No way that the two cars would collide if both of them were following the rules.
A police report said one vehicle crashed into the other. Its occupant pulled a gun and fired at the car. The occupant of the opposing car also got his gun and fired back, triggering a shootout. For some minutes, this part of Metro Manila became the Wild, Wild West.
Haven’t you noticed that in the latest cases of road rage, the drivers or car occupants are armed? This says a lot about how the Philippine National Police (PNP) firearms and explosives division is handling licenses and permits-to-carry firearms. In any given time, how many drivers on the road are carrying guns? It would be interesting to know.
Talking about statistics, the numbers provided by the Metro Manila Development Authority showed that a significant number of the 90,258 crashes in 2014 were triggered by road rage.
San Jose del Monte City Rep. Florida Robes, who has filed a bill at the House of Representatives about this road malady, noted that the cases are on the rise.
“Recent road rage statistics showed that eight out of 10 drivers admit to exhibiting aggressive behavior at least once a year, while nine out of 10 drivers think of aggressive driving as a threat to their personal safety,” Robes said.
The representative has underscored the urgency of enacting measures penalizing aggressive, hostile and violent behavior of motorists on the road.
Road rage incidents that result in serious injuries or even death of a person will likely be prevented if motorists are aware that a hostile act of cursing, use of foul language, or even moderate screaming can land them in jail, Robes stressed, but it seems the House leadership and the concerned committees are not listening.
How about the Senate? And the executive department? Will they just look the other way as people are being killed in the streets?
