Are we reckless drivers?

A 19-year-old man was penalized late last year for reckless driving when he crossed a double yellow line on the Skyway.

- GARY MARIANO

According to the LTO Portal, crossing double solid yellows is prohibited at all times and is penalized as “reckless driving.”The law defines reckless driving as operating “a motor vehicle on any highway recklessly [sic] or without reasonable caution considering the width, traffic, grades, crossing, curvatures, visibility and other conditions of the highway and the conditions of the atmosphere and weather, or so as to endanger the property or the safety or rights of any person or so as to cause excessive or unreasonable damage to the highway.”

The LTO added that “sudden changing” of lanes constitutes reckless driving. The initial penalty for reckless driving is P2,000. Repeat offenses lead to higher fines and the confiscation, suspension or revocation of a driver's license.

I have been driving almost daily for 45 years on the Osmeña Highway, previously and generically known as the South Superhighway. Approaching the northbound Magallanes up-ramp that leads to EDSA is a pavement marking consisting of two solid yellows sandwiching a white solid. Each time, that emphatic sign is casually violated, almost invariably by public buses and the occasional private vehicle.

If that 19-year-old motorist on the Skyway had to endure a highly publicized case (maybe because his father is described as an automotive journalist and a motoring editor), why do other blatant violations occur on Osmeña and perhaps other busy roadways all over Metro Manila, if not all over the Philippines?