Council rejects measure vs. reckless drivers

The city council committee on laws rejected a proposed resolution penalizing reckless drivers in vehicular accidents who abandon or fail to give assistance to their victims.

Councilor Edgardo Labella, the committee chairman, reported to the council that his panel recommends the rejection of the proposed measure of councilor Hilario Davide III because it is already a duplication of an existing law.

In a one-page report, Labella said the Davide proposal has noble intentions but "the subject matter is already covered by Article 365 of the Revised Penal Code as well as existing special penal statutes."

Last year, Davide filed a proposed measure to attend to the concerns of pedestrians or victims of vehicular accidents along the streets and highways.

He said, "many reckless drivers causing such accidents resulting in death or injury to hapless pedestrians or occupants of another vehicle abandon their victims or refuse to extend assistance to them to avoid arrest or to evade identification."

Davide wanted these drivers to be penalized with a fine ranging from P3,000 to P5,000 or meted with a maximum 6-month imprisonment, or both, at the discretion of the court.

But a Revised Penal Code provision states that "any person who, by reckless imprudence, shall commit any act which, had it been intentional, would constitute a grave felony, shall suffer the penalty of arresto mayor in its maximum period to prison correccional in its medium period. - Garry B. Lao