Safety on our roads must be prioritized
This is the second time I missed the Sinulog Grand Parade. The first time was a year ago because of my isolation, since my kidney transplant I was not allowed to leave the house. But yesterday, it was a decision on my part not to participate because of the prohibition to hold parties by Mayor Tomas Osmeña, which I know hurt many small businesses. But it doesn't prevent me from greeting and congratulating Mayor Osmeña for holding a successful Sinulog. Thanks also to the weather, it rained early morning but it was only cloudy for the rest of the day.
Because of the ban on telecom services, I could not access social media to check on what was happening in the streets during the parade. My only source was the coverage of MyTV channel 30 located at the Abellana National High School grounds. As managing director of MyTV, I had a media pass to enter even the restricted areas for the Sinulog but I opted to stay home and watch the festivities on MyTV.
So far I didn't hear any negative news on how parade was held. And best of all, when I passed by Mango Avenue at 9 a.m. yesterday, it was clean of trash, Mayor Osmeña should also focus and be strict on people who throw their trash indiscriminately. Two years ago, I attended a Japanese festival in Nagasaki and clearly Japanese culture is such that no one throws their trash anywhere. But the ample garbage bins were full, which shows the discipline of the Japanese people. Can we Cebuanos emulate this kind of discipline? This is the challenge to our political leadership for next year's Sinulog festivities.
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If there was any untoward incident that marred our Sinulog festivities it was the vehicular accident last Saturday in Barangay Legaspi, Alegria town, where seven Filipino-American doctors and nurses were killed in a road accident when their Toyota Grandia crashed head-on into a tree. Most of the fatalities came from New York and Chicago and went to Oslob for whale shark watching and were on their way to Kawasan Falls when the accident happened.
While this incident may not be Sinulog-related, somehow Filipino-Americans in the medical field would come to Cebu not just to enjoy the Sinulog festival but also to do their annual medical mission. It is a way that Filipino-Americans who are successful in their medical field would conduct as a way of giving back to their home country. They were supposed to go to Camiguin Island when the accident happened. I understand that the driver surrendered to the police and admitted that he lacked sleep and most probably fell asleep behind the wheel.
Just last Friday, we wrote about that horrendous accident that happened last Thursday inside the tunnel of the South Coastal Road where Cebu witnessed a nine-vehicle collision. As I pointed out, this type of multiple collision is common in the US, Canada, and Europe especially during the snow or wet season. But since there was no rain last Thursday, we can only blame the drivers involved in this road accident for driving faster than usual and for not keeping the proper distance between vehicles especially when one is running at high speed.
If flying on an airplane is safer than driving on our streets, it is due to the fact that pilots are trained to do pre-flight checks on their aircraft, something that most motorists totally ignore. Come now, do you even do a cursory walk around your car before you ride the vehicle? I doubt it. But if you ask me this should be made mandatory for trucks and buses. But unfortunately these drivers do not even check their brakes until it's too late!
Making Cebuano drivers less dangerous on the road and better drivers should be the challenge of my good friend Victor Caindec who last Tuesday took over as the new Regional Director for the Land Transportation Office in Region-7. Vic Caindec had a short stint as head of the Cebu City Traffic Operations and Management and knows this by heart and he ought to start with educating Cebuano drivers on road safety and ways to drive with safety as a priority in the minds of Cebuano drivers!
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