Time for LTO to adopt new rules for drivers

With the promise of change brought forth by the Aquino administration, one area of change that no administration ever dared to touch is changes in securing drivers licenses from the Land Transportation Office (LTO) either because the Presidents from Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos down to GMA thought that traffic could be solved by infrastructure alone. But as we all know, there are three “E’s” in Traffic Management: Education, Engineering and Enforcement.

If there is a tricky intersection, the government can either put a flyover (which has already happened in Cebu City) in order to ensure traffic flow or be strict in its enforcement so motorists can follow traffic rules strictly. Sadly, we are poorest in educating our motorists and often when Enforcement fails, Education also fails.

When it comes to traffic managing traffic, it is better for our traffic managers if all motorists knew the simple rules of traffic. But this is the problem with our present centralized form of government, where anyone who can drive in Basilan or in Sorsogon and haven’t seen a signalized intersection is still allowed to drive in Cebu City or in Metro Manila for that matter. Let’s face it; many if not the majority of drivers in Cebu City do not even know how to drive in a freeway. Sure we have a short sample of this in the South Coastal Road, but look at where the slow vehicles are positioned, on the left side of the road, when slow vehicles should always be on the right.

Last June 13 when that JD bus fell into a ravine in Balamban killing those 50 Iranian students, this was followed on Aug. 18 by another tourist bus falling in a ravine in Sablan, Benguet killing 35 tourists and injuring scores more. Then on Aug. 28 another tourist bus fell in a ravine in Pagbilao, Southern Luzon killing 4 passengers and injuring 36 other passengers. This is not to mention the many other bus-related incidents in Toledo City where innocent people lost their lives.

Yet what can the LTO do within the boundaries of the law, but impound the bus, arrest the bus drivers and file the necessary charges against them, not realizing that the LTO is part of the problem. Hopefully these bus problems plaguing the Aquino administration should make him realize that the time for change has come and that the LTO should come up with not just two simple drivers licenses, professional and non-professional, but a thoroughly revamped professional driver’s license.

An avid reader of our columns Mr. Socrates Punay from San Diego, California commented about the bus incidents and told me what they do in the State of California. This is what I like about the United States, each Federal State have different traffic laws. For instance in the State of Texas, you can ride your motorcycle without a helmet, while this is illegal in California.

So Mr. Punay mailed me copies of the 135-page California Commercial Driver Handbook for 2009, which had three copies, one that was as thick as a magazine, the other was a smaller and concise version of the same and another one in Tagalog… yes, you may call it Filipino, but from where I come from it is Tagalog! It’s entitled “Hanbuk ng Tsuper sa California”. He also sent me a brochure on “How to get your California Motorcycle License” and another one entitled “Basic Rider Course by the California Motorcyclist Safety Program (CMSP)”. This means if you want to ride a motorcycle in California, you must undergo a vigorous training, something that all Habal-Habal drivers never took and should undergo.

But what was of great interest to me was their Commercial Driver Handbook, which had cover photos of a trailer truck for container vans, tanker trucks, tourist buses and even training for driving firetrucks. Ask yourself; do we have such training programs for these commercial vehicles here? I doubt it. Yet this is so simple to implement because we do not have to reinvent the wheel. I’m sure that California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger would be more than glad to teach the LTO how to do things better than what we are doing today.

Since I cannot put all of what is written in the handbook in this column, let me just give you that it has 12 sections. The Sec.1 is the introduction, which deals with State laws, requirements and how to get the license. Section 2 is Driving Safety, including Mountain driving, Skid control, Accident procedures, basic vehicle control, night driving, fog and winter. Sec. 3 is on Transporting Cargo, which deals on securing your cargo, weight and balance. Sec. 4 is on Transporting Passengers. Section 6, 7 and 8 is about Combination Vehicles, which deals with trailers, or Tanks. Section 9 is handling hazardous materials/wastes. Section 10 is on Pre-trip Tests. Section 11 is about Skills Tests and Sec.12 is Driving Tests. I dare say the LTO to adopt this handbook and I assure you we will have fewer accidents on our roads.

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