Unqualified drivers

There is a very interesting exchange of views in the Gray Knights egroup, which is one of the few that we belong to, about an incident that reportedly happened at the school parking lot in Manila.

We will not anymore discuss the details, but we all know that there are many drivers who don’t seem to understand what traffic laws are.

You can see them weaving in and out of traffic.  You see them parked in NO STOPPING or NO PARKING areas.  They block junctions.  They refuse to heed traffic lights.  They don’t follow traffic signs.

There are many more offenses that you probably come across each time you drive and the worst part is that there seems to be nobody in authority, who can stop them.

Is this a problem on proper traffic education?  We believe that this is the result of a corrupt system that allows even those unqualified to get a driver’s license.

Now, they are talking about removing the mandatory drug test.  While we don’t really have a problem about having to undergo the drug test every three years when we renew our license, there seems to be a system of corruption where you can only get a drug test from the clinic whose name is stamped on the sheet given to you.

There would be fewer problems on the road if our government toughens the issuance of licenses.  How this will be done is something that we hope our leaders are seriously looking into.

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We noticed that a CITOM trainee was stationed at corner Colon and D. Jakosalem Sts. last week, which is one of the problem areas that we have identified in this column.

There were also several CITOM trainees at corner P. del Rosario St. and Osmeña Blvd., which many readers have also complained about.

How long would this go on?  We hope that the CITOM has realized that putting people in these key intersections would help ease traffic congestion.  Or is this just temporary?

We did notice also at corner Colon and Jakosalem that the enforcer assigned did not seem to bother about telling the jeepney drivers, who used the jeepney stop as terminal to move forward.

We understand the risks involved for these public servants and we continue to appeal to the city officials and the police to assign policemen in the area to rid them of dispatchers and hard headed drivers.

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The recent rollback in the prices of fuel has somehow left us a few pesos from our weekly budget for diesel, but of course we’d like to see these prices go down some more.

With the prices of crude in the world market dropping back to around $115 per barrel, people are hoping to see more price rollbacks in the coming days.

Would there be more?  We surely hope so.

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“When I am driving, I hate it so much when people on board motorcycles meet me on my lane head on even if there is a solid yellow line or a double solid yellow line dividing the road.”

This was what a reader told us over the weekend.

“Why can’t they just follow their lane?” 

We told him that we’d surely bring this us this week and maybe he can go read the first part of today’s column for the answer.

The problem really is that too many unqualified people are driving vehicles.

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For your comments, complaints and suggestions please feel free to contact us through 2531276 local 237.

You can also send email to [email protected].