We never learn

Yesterday, around 40 people died when a passenger bus plunged into a deep ravine in Benguet. Another wayward bus, more innocent lives gone, another headline. Worse is the fact that we have become so familiar with stories of the same genre and learned to shrug them off as just another one for the news.

To remind you: fifteen people were killed last month when a bus slammed into a concrete wall in Cebu City. A month earlier, twenty-one people, most of them Iranian medical students, were killed also in a freak vehicular accident.

“ACCIDENT,” that’s how most people, especially those in government who are tasked to ensure passenger safety, put it. Interestingly, we have seen a lot of “accidents” in the past- at sea, in the air or on our roads. Slowly, we are earning this ill reputation of being a hotbed for fatal accidents, most of which are actually avoidable.

Debates on toll fee hikes, oil price adjustments and other issues pertaining to road usage and safety such as the mandatory use of seatbelts, among others, have overshadowed that single, most basic concern that has gone unaddressed for ages- to rid our seas, air and roads of so-called floating, flying and rolling coffins.

Our government is armed with enough laws to prevent these transportation hazards from plying their routes. Our laws have clearly lined up guidelines for safe travel and the only thing that law enforcers must do is to strictly enforce them. Not for any other reason, especially Hu-money-tarian reasons.

When such accidents occur, people who are responsible have a common escape route. That is, to blame them on “human error.” Suffice it to say, the rubber wheels are controlled by the steering wheel which is controlled by the hands of the driver. One small mistake could lead to a potentially fatal one. So, I will not debate anyone on that.
So what's the safest way to travel? Anyway you like as long as it's not in a coffin.