IT’S the season. For impatience, for drunk driving, for tiredness. It is also the season of accidents. It happens. The superstitious among us would be mumbling a prayer, believing it’s the year spilling blood as it ends, or the new year spilling blood for some luck. Or whatever.
All we know is it’s the season of more than usual. More people, more traffic, more food, more drunks, more inconvenience. But it’s also the season when regret can be overflowing: Pasko pa naman, hindi umabot ng new year, din a lang sana nagbiyahe pa… stuffs regrets are made of.
In Davao City, we have marked the 14th Christmas when we have had no firecracker-related injuries, deaths, and fires. We are looking forward to the 14th New Year with the same. It started as an executive order just before the Christmas season in 2001 and became a city ordinance the following year. Christmas 2001 was our first ever very quiet Christmas.
We have had that 14 times now, and with injuries rising every year, despite constant reminders and gory advertisement by the Department of Health, we know that as a community we have collectively saved a child’s hand and a family’s home every year that we have abided by the law.
In 2013, Executive Order No. 30 was issued by the mayor implementing speed limits in the various areas of the city, ranging from 30 kph in downtown areas to 60 kph along highways. Everyone resented this, most of all the public utility vehicles. Uso-uso jeepney drivers still speed up in areas where they know there are no speedgun-yielding traffic officers, private vehicles rev up, complete with the loud sound of exhaust pipes designed to emit loud sounds instead of muffling them.
Thus, we still see accidents everywhere, especially this season. Looking back to 2001, we did something good. Why then can’t we do the same when road accidents injure and kill more?
Thus, our thoughts as we approach the new year and prepare for yet another feast and yet another reunion: take extra care, whether it be in food intake, in traveling, in driving, or just in walking. It’s the season when parties and booze abound.