American national arrested for fatal hit-and-run in Alcantara

[OnMyWay]

2 minutes ago, Old55 said:

Although I am not an Expat or lived in Philippines for any length of time I have never ever ever ever ever seen one car make way for a lite up police vehicle. Ever. 

Not so sure I've ever seen anyone make way for an ambulance ether. 

Surprisingly, it does happen around here sometimes.

[Kingpin]

On 5/31/2023 at 10:29 AM, Greglm said:

IMHO Filipinos are among the most uneducated, undisciplined drivers in the world.

Possibly, but aggressive drivers are far worse, and outside of Manila aggressive is not allowed, whether it's drivers, people, dogs, they're just culled off.

When you have little rules, enforcement, and even traffic lights, like the Philippines, but with aggressiveness, like India or China, you get chaos on the streets.

When you have many rules and enforcement and everyone's aggressive, like in the US, you get road rage.

I'll take the Philippines any day. That being said I don't drive here, I get driven lol

 

 

[Possum]

1 hour ago, Kingpin said:

When you have little rules, enforcement, and even traffic lights, like the Philippines, but with aggressiveness, like India or China, you get chaos on the streets.

When you have many rules and enforcement and everyone's aggressive, like in the US, you get road rage.

I'll take the Philippines any day. That being said I don't drive here, I get driven lol

There's aggressive drivers and road rage in the Philippines too. It's nuts in the province where we live. Zero law enforcement so why even learn the laws? We are just finishing our vacation in the US. It took my wife and I both a week before we stopped putting on brakes on a thru road when we saw a car approach a stop sign. We just assumed they'd pull out in front of us. We laughed when we entered an intersection with 2 lanes turning in the same direction. As my wife said, "They'd never even attempt to make lanes like that at home. We can't even handle traffic circles, no one knows what to do"

Back to the chaos in a few days. We won't be driving home from the airport though, need an adjustment period.

[Lee]

1 hour ago, Old55 said:

Not so sure I've ever seen anyone make way for an ambulance ether

I think Filipinos have become numb to the flashing ambulance trying to push their way through traffic scenario. More times than not there isn't even an emergency justifying the flashing lights----the driver simply wants to bypass all traffic. I've seen this first hand actually.

One day I'm sitting outside of Divine Hospital in downtown T Town waiting for the wife to finish up. Off in the distance I hear the wail of an ambulance siren as it heads to the hospital. You can follow its progress as it navigates the one way streets downtown with sirens still blaring. It zips into the U shaped driveway in front of the hospital sliding in between trikes and the cars that are already there. At the end of the U it stops to back into another driveway as the guard opens the metal gates in a hurry. It's parked right in front of me. So what is the emergency---nurses and the driver get out of the ambulance---none of them seem to be in any hurry. There are no patients in the ambulance--nothing---so what gives?

A few more minutes of watching the ambulance crew solves the mystery. The reason the crew are in such a hurry to get to the hospital became obvious as I then watch them break out their lunches and dig in.

 

[Kingpin]

1 hour ago, Greglm said:

There's aggressive drivers and road rage in the Philippines too. It's nuts in the province where we live.

Yeah things may be different where there are fewer people like a remote province, or a different class of people like Manila, but Cebu City is tame. Even with all the traffic here I've seen huge firetrucks quickly make a path as all the cars back away.  The only road rage I've experienced in nearly two decades was me, in the backseat of a taxi, because my driver is patiently letting cars cross lanes in front of him. In place of lights or stop signs, sometimes they have crossing guards,  but sometimes they don't, and life goes on without incident.

That's the city though. In the province where this 'American national' was arrested, there is often speeding on lone national highway, especially by the big bus drivers. Feels like a roller coaster.