3 Killed In Cebu Road Accidents

[MikeB]

My wife was returning from a dr's appointment Monday afternoon in Naga when she witnessed the second story in the article, the 7 year old boy killed along the National Highway just north of Sibongna. She didn't see it happen, just the aftermath of the boy's lifeless body along the road with the mother crying and blood everywhere. A terrible and tragic scene, it shook her up very much.

I see hundreds of these children running back and forth along this busy highway with ceres buses, dump trucks, motorcycles, vehicles of every description speeding around each other kamikazie-style on this narrow 2 lane road with no shoulders or sidewalks; no room for error. Just a tiny story in the paper.

http://newsinfo.inqu...-road-accidents

[FlyAway]

Such tragic accidents occur to much there. Something that bothers me is the lack of simple courtesy to pedestrians in general. I am sure all of us have had one to many close calls with some sort of vehicle.

As I read the article MikeB linked, I noticed the drivers of the vehicles involved were arrested or detained pending appropriate charges. We all know this pretty much means money passing between a few hands and then quietly the whole incident disappears. Kind of seems like gambling when you are the driver there.

Now I have to wonder this, if you hit someone there and can be charged with a crime, then why not try to avoid the situation and yield to pedestrians? There is no real investigation as to who is really to blame for the incident. Driver A collided with Driver B or Pedestrian. You hit them, that is all that counts. I do feel aggressive driving seems to be the norm there.

[MikeB]

There is no real investigation as to who is really to blame for the incident. Driver A collided with Driver B or Pedestrian. You hit them, that is all that counts. I do feel aggressive driving seems to be the norm there.

That's true, the system seems to be let the parties settle it among themselves, if possible. One of the basic tenets of western driving is that the pedestrian always has the right of way, but here it's get out of the way or be killed. There is a disregard for the law and the safety of others. The guy on the motorcycle who hit the kid and fled said he was scared for his own safety. If the times in the article are correct, he turned himself in the following morning. That's a terrible thing to have to live with. I was mowed down by an out of control dump truck while on a bike and the driver did not even slow down, just kept going. He only went to the police station because it was a municipal truck and there were witnesses. The police couldn't care less that he almost killed me and fled the scene, they didn't even want to write up the accident report. Unless you're someone important, that's the way it is.

Edited May 3, 2012 by MikeB
corrected spelling