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[av_heading tag=’h3′ padding=’10’ heading=’EDITORIAL | Testing the Filipinos’ road discipline’ color=” style=’blockquote modern-quote’ custom_font=” size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ custom_class=”][/av_heading]
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Saturday, June 3, 2017
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ANTI-Distracted Driving Act. Children’s Safety on Motorcycles Act. Speed limit ordinance. These are all aimed to ensure public safety. If all of us simply follow these, there would be a tremendous improvement in road safety.
In this country, road safety is not only an education and training issue. It is also an attitude issue. The Filipinos’ discipline on the road will be put to the test with the laws against distracted driving, children riding motorcycles, pedestrians using gadgets while on the road, and drivers going beyond the speed limits. Unless you are living under a rock, you should have known these laws by now and is expected to follow them. No ifs, no buts.
The Land Transportation Office, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group, local police and traffic forces should be enforcing these laws assiduously and have issued, published and disseminated by now their public education materials on how to comply with road safety rules and regulations.
Also, these should be part of driver education teaching and study materials for applicants of new driver’s licenses and for the jeepney drivers.
The difficult thing here is that there will always be people who refuse to follow the law or find ways to avoid following the law.
Here’s a suggestion: the better – and perhaps extreme – thing to do is switch off your gadget before you get on the road. Before you go on the road, notify you family, friends, and co-workers that you will be in traffic for a while and will be unable to respond to their messages. For motorcycle riders with kids, better to not bring your kids. Buy the right helmets for you and your kids. Some people have pointed out how some public utility vehicles and private vehicles have cluttered and over-decorated dashboard areas. Clean them up.
The bottom line is this: you can die, you can kill someone, or someone you care about will die or get seriously injured if you do not obey traffic rules and regulations.
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