Sun.Star Essay: The pain of a ride

Sunday, January 22, 2012

IT’S the same old picture you see, but this one takes the cake—a mother on board a habal-habal motorcycle with her three children, two of them perhaps less than three years old, clasped to each of her sides, while the third sat in the middle, in her front. Both the mother’s arms held each of the younger kids. I could see the small heads, and it seemed as though only her body’s bulk kept the 5-year-old eldest in the center in the length of the drive hopefully safely pinned between her and the driver. And the vehicle flew.

But today it’s the bus driver we’re talking about, perhaps to start with, in the government’s attempt to reduce road accidents. And it’s the bus driver and the conductor who are concerned in the latest of government’s action.

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We don’t have to go far in the count of road accidents here in Cebu. In one case, there were four road accidents almost in just a month. Remember the Balamban road accident where a bus full of tourists jumped into a 30-foot ravine, killing 20 Iranians and the driver?

Looking back hurts.

Among the many things we have in common with other people is the need to commute. It can’t be the same in Cebu in the 50s, when there were fewer commuters.
Employees worked in the towns or cities where they lived, unlike now when some workers I know from Carcar come to the city and back to town every day aboard a bus.

In those years, I remember a vehicular strike in Cebu City undertaken when it was a new thing—public transport refusing to take passengers. Since most of the workers in the city also lived in the same city, they walked home at the end of the day. The intent of the strike probably didn’t work. I remember watching people walking home by the roadside, talking, laughing.

But now, the province is getting smaller with more commuters, its population growing every year.

The authorities made a series of studies in accident cases and found out about the risk-taking behavior of drivers, who could be feeling at risk for not getting enough if they are lackluster, lacking speed and dash. The fear brings about loss of confidence, carelessness, and more stress. There are cases of more bus drivers in poor health for the long hours of driving under the scorching heat and the rain.

The data of accidents could continue. There were 15,000 traffic accidents in 2006 in this country. A total of 674 people died, 3,767 injured. It was found out that the accidents were mainly caused by errors on the part of the driver, or 27 percent of the accidents, as against 25 percent in 2003.

Earlier in 2002, 37 percent of accidents happened to utility vehicles, or over a million and a half of the total accidents in the year.

A couple of months ago, the government and the public transport industry signed a joint statement, regarding the pay scheme of drivers, to let them be part of the standard compensation rights of employees, like fixed salary not below the minimum wage, benefits such as in Social Security, Philhealth, Pag-ibig and others.

The joint statement says that the wage of the bus driver will be part-fixed and part-performance-based such as rewards for safe-driving feats, like zero road accidents and traffic violations.

The joint statement was signed by the department of Labor and representatives of the bus transport industry. The memorandum took effect a couple of days ago, with a transition period until July this year. The transport company who will not complete the new scheme of fixed salaries for bus drivers by July this year will have no renewal of franchise.

This could be the beginning of a solution, perhaps also to the accidents involving jeepneys,. motorcycles and pedicabs. As of now, the push for fixed salaries for bus drivers is a good try.

Let’s hope for less fear of pain on the road.

(ecuizon@gmail.com)