table of contents:
I. honor to my lablab
II. speed kills
III. more hidden road dangers
1) missiles
2) left turn
a) wait at the rightmost side
b) undershoot technique
c) overshoot technique
3) speed
4) car doors
5) drunk driving hours
6) lack of skills
7) crossing the road
8) going over a bump/ridge/protruding pipe/embankment/rib diagonally
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I. honor to my lablab
since yesterday i've been googling, trying all kinds of search phrases like "sun star srp accident" until i gave up and thought maybe road fatalities happens so often in cebu they don't even bother to put it in the news anymore. thankfully today my facebook friend sent me a link to the news - https://www.philstar.com/the-freeman/cebu-news/2018/10/26/1863351/mom-25-dies-srp-accident.
turns out the article was in freeman newspaper not sun star. toinks !!! the article made me feel better. it's beautifully written and it at least made an effort to honor my lablab. i just realized the magnitude of the duty and responsibility of a journalist.
later on i learned the news was also in sun star. my friend sent me this link: https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1770883/Cebu/Local-News/Mother-dies-holding-2-month-old-child?fbclid=IwAR1vtm6Gkjpvz1ixvFbbglCRT0fjtnNHFkbRd5ASXgks-rgtOC4ggBqUpQU
II. speed kills
the news article also confirmed my suspicion it was caused by over speeding. the driver even admitted it. it's so ironic that all my life i've been ridiculed for driving too slow and always annoying people about the importance of defensive driving and avoiding UNECESSARY SPEEDING (over speeding should always be illegal but not necessarily immoral. however, unnecessary speeding is always immoral even if in some cases it's legal). and now my babygirl lablab is dead because of unnecessary speeding. people often say i'm crazy but i've always felt deep inside they are the crazy ones and now i think maybe i'm right.
around last year i rode a coaster bus with my high school batchmates to moalboal. it was just about a 3 hour ride each way. i was sitting in the front seat next to the driver and the entire time i was so scared and stiff and even if i'm not a religious person, i was praying all the prayers i still remembered from childhood. i had to do all this mentally in my mind of course to avoid spoiling the fun trip for my batchmates. when ever our bus would arrive at one of our destinations i would get a huge sigh of relief, thanking god multiple times. of course the trip could have been easily safe and relaxing for me if i just told the driver to limit the speed to 50kph, which would have only delayed us probably 45 minutes. but i also knew my batchmates would beat me up if i did that. which is funny because people usually criticize me for my crazy dangerous behaviors but that bus trip was actually 10 times more dangerous than the craziest and most dangerous thing i've done in my life, yet all my batchmates were so relaxed as if there was no danger.
the last time i remembered being that scared was 4 years ago when i went to tacloban. i mistakenly took a boat and was not aware that after the boat ride, there would be a 2 hour land travel via public transpo. the van i rode was driving at 100 kph, which is insanely fast considering the roads were small with no safety middle barriers or separators to prevent head on collisoins. so the entire 2 hours we were whizzing by the other vehicles going the opposite direction who were also going just as fast (as i indicated in my first road safety blog 5 years ago https://ian-crystal.blogspot.com/2013/12/paul-walker-was-hot.html, the impact of a head on collision is equal to the sum of the speeds of the opposing vehicles. in this case 100kph +100kph=200kph impact = 0% chance of survival). as if that was not enough, it was night time, with very poor visibility. as if that was not enough, IT WAS RAINING, so the roads were slippery. i swear i felt my life was hanging by a thread at the edge of a cliff. a little mistake and for sure this blog would not exist. (i took the boat instead of the plane because i love riding boats. my obsession for riding boats stemmed from childhood trauma - whenever my yaya went home to her province my family drove her to the pier because of it's a filipino custom to always bring 50 boxes of baggage whenever we travel. so it was a double whammy trauma - i cried not only because my yaya was going away but also because she got to ride a boat and i didn't).
i'm always annoying my sister and her husband about the importance of driving slow in the freeway (california). i even told them to sell their house and move closer to work because that 45 minute drive to work and 45 minute drive home everyday dramatically increases their risk of an accident. freeway driving in america is super dangerous because it's very high speed. city driving in the philippines is actually safe most of the time because of the slow moving traffic. it's only dangerous at night or early morning when there is no traffic because people take advantage of the rare opportunity to drive as fast as they can for the thrill of it. however, provincial roads in the philipines are more dangerous than freeway driving in america because of the lack of middle barriers.
one time my sister and her husband were bringing me to the airport. i was the one driving, keeping a safe and relaxing 60 mph speed. all of a sudden there was a multi-car collision right in front of us. debris from the colliding cars were flying all over the place but i was driving slow enough to have enough reaction time and control of my car to evade the debris and the pile up. it was like playing a video game, some missed us by just a few inches. if i was driving at a speed like most people, chances are we would have ended up in the hospital. my sister sold her house and moved close to work after that.
when i was living in san francisco bay area, my golfing buddy, dicky jacutin, suggested it would be a fun idea for me to play against one of the top cagayanon golfer in los angeles, since i was one of the top golfers in the filipino golfing community in san francisco area. so he arranged it and his friend from los angeles brought his family with him. on the way to san francisco, one of the tires blew up and the ford suv rolled over and hit a pole. the kids were unharmed, but his friend, who was driving, died and the wife was in a comma for a few months. i was even the one who made the tribute music video for the funeral. they sent me pictures and videos and i arranged it.
just recently my fb friend edmund porter posted a public service announcement saying he is a biker and if you are driving a car to try to keep a safe 6 feet space when you pass by a bicycle because he has a family and he wants to come home to his family alive. i was going to comment but was too busy at that time. for me it's not the safe distance that's important. it's the speed. speed kills. not the collision.
in a very slow moving traffic, passing by 3 inches from a biker is very safe. in fact i got hit a few times during rush hour traffic and i just smiled and gave a thumbs up to the driver to singal everything is ok. it's like someone just tapped me on my shoulder. however, at very high speeds, even if the cars are whizzing by 12 feet from you, you should find a safer route for the love of our lady of guadalupe.
III. more hidden road dangers
here is a more complete PSA for bikers (i won't include common knowledge like turning your head and not relying on the side mirror to check for a passing vehicle before turning or changing lanes):
1) missiles
plan your bike trips and routes to avoid fast moving vehicles - they are like missiles. if possible, do your errands during rush hour when cars are moving like a snail. and for cyring out loud if you are just riding for fun do it in a park or trail where there are no vehicles like my dear high school batchmate jay montecillo (check out his beautiful biking sceneries in facebook). my beloved CEO of the company i worked for for 15 years (altera corp), when he finally retired to enjoy his $millions, he went biking and boom, got hit by a car and died - https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1268427
one time i was driving along mabolo road from mabolo church to IT park. it was bumper to bumper traffic. i saw a very beautiful girl, around 20 years old, from a rich pedigree, riding a bicycle even if it was clear she does not know how to ride a bike, because every 10 meters she would get outbalanced and have to stop and stand on her foot to avoid falling. you might think she is crazy learning how to ride a bike in the middle of traffic but actually it was not that dangerous because the cars were barely moving. what i found crazy was the fact that she was just alone because usually beautiful rich socialite girls like that would always be accompanied by friends everywhere they go. it was actually smart of her to ride a bike instead of ride a car because when i passed by a boxing gymn 1 kilometer later, i looked inside the gymn hoping to see my classmate jojo tipace but instead i saw the same girl already sparring with a guy and kicking his ass. respect !!! (but now they covered the wall so you can't see inside from the street anymore). such a character. i'm so curious to get the name of that girl so i can find out in facebook how crazy she really is so if you are reading this and happen to be a member of that gymn or know that girl, message me :-)
2) left turn
when doing a left turn in a fast moving traffic, do not do what cars do where they stop in the middle of the road, waiting for the opportunity to do a left turn. a car whose driver has poor depth perception or a beginner driver could easily miscalculate the spacing and side swipe you. to make matters worse, you could be thrown to the next lane and get run over by an approaching vehicle. i have too many neighbors who died or got injured this way.
a) wait at the rightmost side
what you do is stay on the right lane or right side of the road all the time during fast moving traffic. then when you want to do a left turn, go as far right as possible to stay far away from the vehicles whizzing by. if there is a car parking, use it as cover (like a soldier in a firefight). then wait for a lull and then cross the road. be patient. follow my mathematical law of traffic lull probability:
in a non freeway fast moving traffic, there will always be a lull in traffic after a few seconds that allows you to cross the road safely. if it takes too long for a lull to occur, that means traffic is so slow and you can cross the road safely anytime.
just think about it. if the cars are moving so fast, that means there are less cars on the road, which means a lull is certain to occur at any moment.
b) undershoot technique
another technique is actually counter intuitive and sounds more dangerous and is actually illegal because it involves counter flowing. if it's very fast moving traffic and there is a lull in the opposing traffic, i would usually cross the road ahead of time if i'm already close enough to the intersection. before crossing, check your rear and left flank to make sure a vehicle is not trying to overtake you. then try to cross diagonally instead of a right angle, depending on the amount of lull in the opposing traffic. this gives you an additional safety precaution in case you make an error in checking your rear or left flank for an overtaking vehicle because a diagonal crossing is more gradual and allows time for the overtaking vehicle to react.
after crossing to the other side, i slowly inch my way towards the intersection. of course you have to stay at the lefts side of the road as much as possible. i would even go on the pedestrian lane, i just drop both my foot to touch the ground to trick the cops into thinking i'm just moving my bike to another parking spot instead of counter flowing. my speed is even slower than a walking pedestrian so it's completely safe.
note that this technique avoids having to stop in the middle of the road waiting to make a left turn while fast moving vehicles whiz by you like ballistic missiles missing you by just a few inches (super dangerous !!!) where a beginner driver with poor depth perception might miscalculate and hit you.
c) overshoot technique
this is similar to the undershoot technique but you keep going with the flow of traffic until you find a lull in the opposing traffic, even if it means overshooting the intersection where you want to do a left turn. keep in mind you are driving a motorcycle so it's ok to overshoot the intersection by even a half kilometer because traffic is not factor and it's easy to do sharp u-turns so you won't really be wasting travel time.
the idea behind this undershoot/overshoot technique is to avoid depending on others not making a mistake. of course you can still make a mistake and get into an accident but the mistake is yours to make, not other people. i will be making a video demo on these techniques so stay tuned.
3) speed
keep your speed under 40kph. crashing at 40kph will probably just give you scratches and bruises. remember it's the speed that kills. even if you don't collide with another vehicle, crashing at 60kpm can send you to the hospital. 80kph can send you to the morgue. even if you are a very good rider, many unpredictable things can still happen - running over a stone or if a dog or child suddenly crosses the road. just this year a friend of my friend (mark ian chavez) almost died. he was going 80kph at SRP on his motorbike (why not? it was in the middle of the night and there were no cars around). he said he hit a small rock in the middle of the road and went off balance, and lost control. his head hit the pavement so hard his helmet broke and his skull got cracked. he was in intensive care for many days but survived.
however there are cases where it's safer to go 60 kph. it's always safer to stay in the middle of the lane and keep up with the flow or speed of traffic than drive slower, which forces the cars behind you to overtake you. if the driver of the passing car or overtaking car has poor depth perception or is a beginner driver and miscalculates the space between you and their car, you could get side swept. so if the traffic is 60kph, you are better off driving 60 kph. that is why i admire people who have no choice but to ride a motor bike at these fast roads because it's part of their job (e.g. food delivery motorcycles). respect !!!
another example is in valle verde pasig. i usually go out to eat in the middle of the night and most of the time there are no cars behind me or in front of me, but 100 meters behind me there are cars waiting for the stop light to turn green. when the light turns green it would be like a drag race and pretty soon cars will be whizzing by me. i would rather drive fast hopefully i will get to the next stop light or my destination first before those cars will be wizzing by me like ballistic missiles. but of course not too fast such that if i crash by myself i would still be ok.
there are times when it is safer to go really fast like 80kph example is in EDSA. the trick with edsa is to stay at the right most side where the buses stop. of course you go slow when a bus is loading/unloading passengers because they have the right of way. do not pass a stopped bus at the left side because it's dangerous and it defeats the purpose. pass at the right so sometimes you will need to respectfully request the pedestrians to move aside so you can pass. when the coast is clear i just go about 40kph. the cars are whizzing by me but there is a 1 or 2 lane buffer so it's not that dangerous. although be careful because the wind gust caused by a bus whizzing by will tend to knock you off so you have to be prepared for this and not be caught off guard or panic. at first i felt sorry for the motorbike riders in edsa because of the buses whizzing by them. but then i noticed it is the motorbikes that are whizzing by the buses. incredible !!! i even saw a motorbike with an elementary school kid back riding going i think 100kph. crazy !!! child endangerment at it's finest. that driver should be given the father of the year award. HOWEVER, there are points in EDSA where you have to merge to the middle in order to take the overpass or else you will be forced to exit the freeway or take an interchange that leads you to another city. you have no choice but to go the same speed as the flow of traffic to merge to the middle. if it's not rush hour traffic and the flow of traffic is 80kph then you have no choice but to also go 80kph. note that this is still very dangerous. you should only do this if you have natural quick reflexes or x-game skills. there are always alternative side routes in manila so you don't have to take a freeway. one time on my way home to valle verde from camp aguinaldo golf driving range, i wanted to pass by the EDSA revolution shrine to take pictures. instead of having to go around, i decided to just exit the edsa gate and counter flow 1km to the shrine. can you believe that? i counter flowed the most dangerous freeway in the world. the caveat is that i stayed on the pedestrian side walk going very slowly and when i saw a highway patrol passing by i stopped and opened my ubox to pretend i was fixing my motorbike. hahahaha !!!
4) car doors
ALWAYS EXPECT A DOOR OF A STOPPED CAR TO SUDDENLY OPEN. even if it's stopping in the middle of the road for a red stop light. someone could still open the door to get down. it's not a knowledge bomb to tell you the danger of a blind corner so i don't even have to include it here. but what many are not aware of is, just imagine passing close by a stopped car at high speed and the door suddenly opens. but it's inefficient to keep slowing down everytime you have to pass by a parked car at a close distance, so just be smart and go 20kph. if the accident does happen, you will just get scratches and bruises - a good trade off. i'm not telling you to completely avoid risk because that's impossible. i'm telling you that if there is something you can do to minimize risk, just do it.
5) drunk driving hours
during drunk driving hours (friday/saturday night-dawn), listen to high speeding cars. when you hear a car speeding, pull over to the side, stop, and watch the high speeding car and be ready to dive to the side if starts to look like it's going out of control and might be going towards you.
6) lack of skills
at the end of the day, safe driving skills like quick reflexes and real time case by case decision making cannot be taught. it's an inborn personality. so if any of you is sick and tired of traffic and is thinking about training one of your staff to be a motorbike errand personnel, think twice. to some people, it would be like teaching a gay person to be attracted to a woman. i learned this the hard way. i trained one of my babygirls named angel. for an hour a day i let her drive around the village to hone her skills so when she turns 18 she could be my errand girl. but then i saw her cross an intersection without slowing and without looking. so i scolded her and corrected her but she just laughed at me and asked me why is that so important? i then realized if she can't figure out for herself this supposedly obvious safety habit, can you imagine the hundreds of other safety habits she should possess that you shouldn't even need to teach another person because it is suppose to be just common sense? so i took her keys. but one night while i was sleeping, she took the keys and went riding with her girlfriend. boom !!! i was awaken by a call from her girlfriend saying they were in the hospital. thank god they just had abrasions and minor burns from the exhaust pipe. in the hospital angel was screaming so loud the other people in the emergency room was looking at us. while she was screaming, i was also scolding her shouting "da !!! myra !! dle man mo patuo" (that's what you get for being hard headed). people there might have thought i'm a very mean and sadistic person.
angel was bed ridden for about a week. when her wounds healed she wanted to drive a motorbike again. her reason? the accident was not her fault because the other motorcycle did not use a turn signal so they collided at high speed when the motorcycle did a sudden turn. i told her it does not matter because you should always be defensive driving or expect other vehicles to make those mistakes and just take precautions like slow down so you have time to react just in case. i told her even if it's not your fault, you still ended up in the hospital and suffering from your wounds. it's not like your wounds will disappear or you will rise from the dead because it's not your fault. instead of understanding, she got angry at me accusing me of not understanding what happened.
so if you ever have a kid who insists on riding a motorbike, get insurance for you child so that when your child gets into an accident and dies you at least get money. my babygirls and her friends always ridicule me and make fun of me because i drive too slow when driving a motorbike. one night, my baby girl named queenie nagged me to take her to the mountains. my errand boy, joshua, who also serves as a bodyguard to my babygirls when they go out at night went with us but was riding a motorbike while we rode in a car. i told him to drive slow. of course as usual he ignored my advice. in the car i told the girls i'm so bummed because i have a strong feeling i might have to spend P20k tonight. they were confused and asked me why? i said because i will have to pay for the hospitalization of joshua. i told them the way joshua is showing off to you girls right now with his maniacal driving, there is no way he is not going to end up in the hospital or morgue tonight. they thought i was crazy, but a few minutes later, boom !!! when he was doing a sharp turn at a very high speed, he hit a rock and ended up in the ditch.
7) crossing the road
this warning is actually for pedestrians, and it's so important you should drill this into the heads of your children and love ones - a mistake that even the best of us make far too often. pretty much all of us have developed a habit of pausing in the middle of the road when crossing, waiting for a lull in the other side before crossing. this is actually safe if the traffic is slow and if it's during daytime when the drivers can easily see you. but if it's night time and the cars are moving fast enough, there is another grave danger some of us are not aware of. while pausing in the middle of the road, the drivers of the car might not see you because they get BLINDED BY THE HEADLIGHT BEAM of the cars going the opposite direction.a car might even try to overtake if they see that the incoming car is still far enough. far enough but the headlight of that car is already blinding their eyes especially if it's set to high beam. so if someone happens to be standing in the middle waiting to cross, that person is toast.
but of course if the cars are going too fast, it's also very dangerous even during the day time because a driver with poor depth perception or a beginner driver might miscalculate the space between you and their car and side sweep you. not to mention the fatigue of jeepney drivers who could be on their 12th hour shift. try driving in the city for 2 hours and it drains all your energy. imagine these taxi and jeepney drivers do it for 12 hours day in day out. fatigue causes poor reflexes, poor decision making and poor senses such as depth perception. that's why i wish there is a law to limit jeepney and taxi drivers to 8 hour shift and a 40 kph city speed limit. it also protects the health of the drivers because ALL my childhood friends who became taxi and jeepney drivers are now DEAD from different health issues. long shifts also burns out the body over time which forces the drivers to resort to drugs like shabu or meth to keep going so they can feed their family.
i actually witnessed an accident in my alma matter UP cebu on may 27, 2012. i mentioned it in facebook (screen shot below) but did not get into more detail with my thoughts and analysis at that time so i will do it now:
i noticed the female UP student crossing the street because she was quite good looking. i slowed down because there were other people crossing the street. but the opposing traffic was still going very fast, maybe because it's the end of a downhill run and jeepney drivers are using the opportunity to experience a short thrill in their otherwise boring and exhausting day. jeepneys are usually dangerous aging vehicles with sub par brakes and handling but most of the time it's ok because the traffic forces them to go slow. but the street in front of UP cebu usually has no traffic. this is not a witch hunt. i'm not trying to vilify the jeepney drivers because the problem can easily be solved by imposing 20kph speed limit on all school zones and impose a mild fine to violators like P200. i know this fine is too small but it's enough to deter violations and it actually motivates drivers to follow the law because it makes them feel like the law sympathizes with their economic difficulties and is not out to get them but to ensure the safety of the students.
next thing i saw, the girl was already up in the air, above the jeepney, like a rag doll tossed up in the air. what's so eerie about it was there was no sound coming from the accident because the car i was driving was airconditioned. there was no thump or collision sound you would expect to hear (this reminds me of the white bmw i saw while driving home from a snowboarding trip in california. it was raining hard and night time when i saw this white bmw like a piece of white paper or cardboard being blown by the wind doing a turn turtle multiple times until it was leaning against the wall at the side of the freway. it was in a vertical position like a person leaning it's back against the wall. it was like a dream or illusion because i didn't here the sounds).
when i opened my windows i heard the eerie and nerve wracking sound of people shouting and saw the girl lying at the curb side blood was spewing out of her mouth. people carried her to the jeepney which brought her to the hospital. that year we had a reunion and i asked the guard of our school about the girl and the guard said the girl did not die but had to quit school because she had like a brain damage.
8) going over a bump/ridge/protruding pipe/embankment/rib diagonally
another safety tip i always teach to my errand girl is if you go over any bump/ridge/protruding pipe/embankment/rib diagonally you will fall down if the tires fail to bite the edge. always attack the ridge perpendicularly. i see these accidents a lot. the only way to ingrain this knowledge into a person's brain is to actually let them try it and fall down a few times at very slow safe speed so it becomes instinctive or it becomes an automatic reflex.
3/15/21 fb post:
cruisin cebu south with my babygirl on my tesla. passing by pinamungahan the hometown of my bespren @allan barabat. most people reading this post will probably be shocked and say, "it has a best friend?". i did have around 5 best friends in my life so maybe i'm a normal person. i was also very impressed with the leaders of pinamungahan for implementing a speed limit of 40kph. many people are suppose to be very educated and smart but they have no idea how dangerous it is to travel the provincial roads in the philippines. in 2018, 12 thousand died due to road accidents in the philippines. compare that with 12,800 that died from covid19 so far. if you agree we should all wear masks, then you should also agree that undivided roads should have a speed limit of 40kph unless you are a stupid idiot. roads or highways with barrier in the middle can have a speed limit of 80kph. freeways can have a speed limit of 100kph. that is why i'm also impressed at sara robredo for implementing and strictly enforcing a speed limit in her hometown. our country needs these kinds of intelligent leaders. this coming elections, VOTE ROBREDO !!! RUN SARA RUN !!!. to be well educated on road safety, search "ian's knowledge bombs" on the web and click "road-safety-knowledge-bombs" in the table of contents.
7/13/20 fb post:
i noticed a motorcycle hazard that i'm sure has been causing a lot of funny harmless accidents. i asked the guard how many motorcycles have fallen and the guard was surprised that i know about it. he told me pretty much any motorcycle who comes in the first time will fall down. i laughed and told the guard not to tell the manager about it so that he will continue to have a source of hilarious entertainment.
if you ride a bike or motorbike, read all my safety tips by searching "ian's knowledge bombs" on the net and click "road-safety-knowledge-bombs" in the table of contents. this is actually tip #8 of my article.
(for more of my knowledge bombs, click the "ian's knowledge bombs" banner at the top of this article and choose any article in the table of contents that piques your interest)
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