DRIVING while intoxicated. Drunk driving. Drinking and driving. Drink-driving. There are many names to this beast, but only one certain outcome awaits those who are unfortunate enough to o cross path with it: accident. That may be a less serious mishap ranging from destruction of property or loss of limbs. Or untimely death, such as what 15-year old Junrie Balingit met when Councilor Alden Bacal's Toyoto Revo accidentally hit him.
Road traffic deaths in the country are going in an upward trend, data from the Health Intelligence Service of the Department of Health show. As early as 1980, when vehicles are relatively fewer on the road, the death rate from vehicular traffic accidents have been growing at an average of 12 percent every decade.
There is no downward trend in the number of deaths as more cars are added to the roads each year and, since the Marcos era, laws against abusive driving-specially drunk driving-have not been improved to cope with the changing times.
Thus, reckless drivers in this country only get a slap in the wrist. Drunk drivers do not get the commensurate punishment if a pedestrian is killed. Any drunkard can hit the road and zoom at will anytime because there is no law in this country that makes drunk driving unlawful. Authorities only show up for you if you are injured, or killed. (Still, that is relative, as police action sometimes depends on the surname of the other guy who bumped you.)
Even rarely-heard countries such as Micronesia and French Polynesia have laws against driving under influence (DUI) of alcohol. In Micronesia, it is illegal for any citizen to drive if he or she has a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.05%; the same quantity is applied in French Polynesia.
In Armenia and Azerbaijan, drinking a drop of intoxicating liquor is enough to for any motor vehicle driver to land in jail.
In Canada the limit is 0.08 percent BAC; in Palau 0.01 percent; in New Zealand 0.08 percent for drivers over 20 years, 0.03 percent for those under. In the United States, each state imposes its limit, currently at an average of 0.08 percent BAC.
In the Philippines? No limit, of course. Just ask the drunk drivers.
A bill that seeks to make it "unlawful the act of driving or operating any motor vehicle while under the influence of alcoholic beverages and/or prohibited drugs" is still pending in Congress. The bill has been re-filed at least thrice in the Senate, to no avail.
While at this, pedestrians continue to face the imminent risk of meeting the tragic fate of one Junrie Balingit.
