Why driver education should never stop

Learning the car and its safety features

- By INIGO S. ROCES

The vehicular incidents of the past couple of weeks are difficult to ignore; not just because of their gravity but because of the number of injured as well as casualties. With May being road safety month, there could be no better time to begin talking about steps we can take to be safer on the road.

"The car is getting complex, and yet drivers are all trained how to drive with lessons from 10 to 15 years ago," points out Atty. Robby Consunji, a Trustee and Chairperson of Government Liaison Committee of the Automobile Association Philippines (AAP) and very vocal road safety advocate.

"Ten years ago, there was no assisted parking, collision avoidance, blind spot warning, or 360-degree camera. There are so many cars with these features, and yet, when you ask the average driver, they say they don't know how to use it. The technologies are there. The driver has not been trained to use it, or to be aware that it's there."

Safety nets

Atty. Consunji argues that the main stumbling block toward producing safer drivers is the presence of so many 'safety nets.'

These 'safety nets' are things like modern safety systems that intervene in the event of an incident, a friend or relative that can help one talk their way out of a traffic ticket, or even the Filipino's reliance on family and community members (rather than insurance) to pay for vehicle damage or hospitalization in the event of a serious accident. He argues that having these present means that the gravity of the consequences of an accident are somewhat muted, leaving Filipinos with a more passive approach to road safety, rather than a healthy respect for the potential dangers of the road.