Are we there yet? Darkness falls

A book and a film of the same name talks about how people from a small town developed fear of the dark due to a vengeful soul they called the “Tooth Fairy.”  In real life, I would admit that I am afraid of the dark.  Not for the same reason though, as I don’t fear fictitious monsters.  I am afraid of the dark because there are so many ways one could figure in a traffic collision.  It is bad enough that night driving has its fair share of  hazards, like drunk people walking in the streets or driving their motor vehicles.  So many factors contribute to making night driving more difficult than solving a rubik’s cube with one hand.

First, there’s the poor street lighting.  I am not talking about the barely lit side streets that you see in the island city.  Those possess a different kind of  horror story entirely.  I’m talking about major thoroughfares like the south roads.  These high speed roads are not lit in certain sections and the speed that most motorists negotiate these sections are scary to downright deadly.  I cannot believe the amount of negligence the government has for keeping these roads dark and dangerous.  And the problem is, they will never admit to their fault.  Have you ever come across a news article with the government claiming responsibility for unlit sections of a major thoroughfare?  No, because they are very good at finger-pointing.  They’re always good at blaming someone else for their fault.  They have to.  Their nicotine-addicted big boss up in the river palace taught them to do so.

Adding to poor street lighting is the total absence of traffic enforcers in the evening.  Somehow, all traffic organizations have this mistaken notion that once the sun sets, not a single vehicle will ply the road and there would be no need to have additional bumbling enforcers to work the night shift.  This is where everything goes wrong.  You see, when the sun sets, everyone changes.  Some motorists are in a rush to go home.  Other motorists, especially scooters and mopeds, do not feel the need to switch on their lights because they can see as bright as day.  This is the time of the day that the brain-dead, reckless, “I don’t know how they got a license”  van, truck and bus drivers muscle their monster vehicles around town in an effort to get to their destinations faster.  If there were night shift buffoons standing on street corners putting some semblance of fear in the eyes of these irresponsible motorists, there is a good chance the roads could be safer for most of us.

And then there are those nocturnally invisible trisikads.  Despite existing laws and ordinances that require them to have lights and reflectors, gazillion of these traffic hazards ply the streets of the stallion, kapitolyo and island city.  Not only are they a danger to every motorist for being barely visible, the poorly lit small roads of these “cities” add more to making them very difficult to spot.  If only these so-called powerful barangay tanods would strictly enforce the road rules governing these three-wheeled, pedal menace, the roads would be slightly safer for us motorists.  One solution, which their small minds may have missed, is requiring all trisikad drivers to wear a reflectorized vest.  But I won’t really hold my breath on them enforcing that either.

Sadly, the heads of these cities are not that concerned about our safety.  They are, either, too busy rocking the latest aviator-styled sunglasses, busy firing people left and right or belting out the latest pop hit while dancing like an urangutan.  Whichever one it is, whining about why a national hero is in diapers won’t get the streets lit up properly.  ([email protected])