LAST November 11, along MacArthur Highway, Balibago, Angeles City, a road rage incident happened involving the driver of an sports utility vehicle (SUV) bearing protocol plate number 8 and the driver of another vehicle, a sedan.
The incident stemmed from an alleged abrupt overtaking of one of the involved vehicles, prompting the driver of the overtaken to confront and maul the driver of the other. The incident was captured on closed-circuit television system and was put under investigation by the police.
Since one of the involved vehicles bear a protocol plate number 8, the name of Pampanga 1st District Congressman Carmelo “Jon Jon” Lazatin was dragged into the issue as some people with wild imaginations pointed their fingers to the lawmaker as the one who got involved in the said road rage episode.
Some would say that even such incident was “napulitika” because the name of Cong. Lazatin got involved. The latter quickly denied his involvement and stated that he was not issued yet protocol plate numbers 8 for the 17th congress. It would later be discovered during the police investigation that the plate number of the SUV was issued by the legislature during the 16th congress.
Recently, the road rage suspect was finally arrested in Tarlac City by the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Central Luzon Highway Patrol Group and the Tarlac Provincial Police and was charged with serious physical injuries, grave threat, usurpation of authority and violation of Republic Act 4136 or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code.
The suspect turned out to be a singer who, with his band, performs gigs in bars in the entertainment district of the city. The victim is a nurse and a resident of Angeles City.
Because of the said road incident, the suspect is now languishing in jail while the victim’s injuries are into the process of healing. The trauma that the latter has experienced, however, lingers.
Road rage incidents do happen. We can avoid them if only drivers can control their vehicle accelerator pedals and their temper too. While we cannot help having undisciplined, unruly drivers on roads, we can and should on the other hand suppress our rage for them as much as we can.
I, for one, have been slighted too many on the road by some drivers who seems to be intentionally provoking other drivers like me with their speed and dangerous turns on highways. Instead of focusing on my rage, I would focus on the consequences should my temper be made uncontrolled.
We have witnessed several road rage incidents in the news and those who perpetrated crimes such as killing or inflicting injuries to other drivers out of rage and got caught spent years in jail. They should serve as lessons for other drivers who should control their temper in order to avoid getting involved in road rage incidents.
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