There’s now a move by the Land Transportation Office to address the rising cases of drunk driving across the country.
Starting November 15, the LTO said it will make license revocation an automatic penalty for motorists who exceed legal alcohol limits; a step up from its previous penalty of merely suspending the driver’s license, or having the revocation of the license as one of the penalties.
"For example, 'yung tao napara tapos may violation siya... ibe-breath analyzer 'yan. Pag nag-breath analyzer 'yan at nagpositive siya, automatic isho-show cause ng IID 'yan. Bibigyan siya ng due process, dun magpaliwanag siya kung bakit siya nag-positive. Then, ang magiging hatol revocation," LTO Chief Markus Lacanilao said.
It’s about time this is done. For quite a while we have written about how drunk driving cases have become more prevalent these days. Some cases just resulted in road rage incidents where only pride was hurt, but other incidents ended up with people injured or even dead.
We have mentioned these following cases before.
Last month, a man was driving along Gen. Maxilom Avenue in Cebu City when he fell asleep at the wheel and struck a couple, the woman later died.
Also last month, two suspected drunk drivers decided to race in Banilad, Cebu City, and ended up killing a call center agent crossing the pedestrian lane.
There was also a case of another drunk driver going amok in V. Rama Avenue, Cebu City, and hitting several vehicles and a bakery but, thankfully, no one got hurt in that case.
Last July, a drunk driver counter-flowed and hit a child in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City.
Last February also in Barangay Banilad, Cebu City, a drunk driver ended the life of a young businessman just walking around his neighborhood. Of course, these are just the prominent cases, imagine those not reported. Imagine the other cases in different parts of the country.
Alcohol and driving shouldn’t mix. Alcohol dulls judgment while driving is a privilege and also a huge responsibility.
If some drivers think this penalty is too much and argue that driving drunk without causing an accident shouldn’t merit such a drastic penalty, we respectfully disagree.
We shouldn’t wait until an accident happens before taking a drunk driver off the streets.