“The DOTr should require training before authorizing professional driver license holders to drive jeepneys, taxis, buses or trucks of every class”
DRIVING along our highways has become dangerous over the years and it is a problem the Department of Transportation can no longer ignore or brush aside.
The increasing number of fatalities in traffic accidents bears this out.
From 2011 to 2021 for instance, there was a 39 percent increase of traffic fatalities from 7,933 to 11,096.
In 2024, the Department of Health recorded 703 road fatalities within just 15 days including 47 cases during a 24 hour period. Traffic accidents is also the biggest killer of people ages 5 to 29 years old not only here in the country but all over the world, according to the World Health Organization.
According to the DOTr, the first four months of this year have already exceeded the entire traffic casualty figures of last year.
That dreadful traffic accident last week along the northbound lane of the SCTEX is but one example.
It caused the death of 12 people and the wounding of about 33 and a week before that another multi vehicle pileup in the Metro area resulted in the death of three and the wounding of several people.
As if those two traffic accidents were not catastrophic enough, an SUV plowed thru a crowd at the NAIA terminal, killing two people including a 5-year-old girl.
Understandably, the DOTr has had enough and therefore issued a series of orders to show that this time it means business in tackling the problem of road safety.
This problem. however, is a lot more complex than simply issuing a series of orders like mandatory drug testing or bus drivers prohibited from driving continuously for more than four hours.
Those are of course immediate actions but more than those, what should be done is to do a careful study and then come up with a reform package that will improve the entire system which should include the driver licensing because that is where the problem is.
For instance, only qualified people should be allowed to drive along our highways.
And to accomplish this, the DOTr must set up the infrastructure to implement this like a place for the written tests and a driving circuit where prospective drivers can be tested.
It is currently too easy for anyone to acquire a driver’s license.
Reforming the process to be able to drive professionally to earn a living is also a must because it is also very easy to convert a non-professional driver’s license to a professional license.
All that someone has to do is wait for a few months to become a professional driver without undergoing any sort of training or testing to become a jeepney, taxi, bus, twelve or a twenty wheeler truck driver.
In other countries, one has to undergo a lot of testing before one can drive a taxi.
In London, one cannot just go to a taxi operator to apply for a job even if one has a professional license without presenting evidence of training plus proof that the applicant knows every nook and cranny of London.
More so if one wants to drive those monster trucks that we see being driven in our freeways today.
These are becoming bigger and could be very dangerous for other motorists driving lower category vehicles like sedans or vans if these behemoths are involved in any traffic accident. That is exactly what happened to that Metro road accident.
The DOTr should, therefore, require training before authorizing professional driver license holders to drive jeepneys, taxis, buses or trucks of every class.
The skill required for all these types of public transport are not the same.
The professional license should be for one class of vehicle at a time and not a blanket license for all types of vehicles.
Transport companies hiring people with professional driver licenses should require applicants to present proof of training, experience and a police clearance of non-involvement in any serious traffic accident.
The challenge is huge and cannot obviously be solved overnight but DOTr Secretary Dizon said all the right words and therefore understands the problems and what should be done.
Let’s wish him well and hope whatever he will do, the eventual outcome will be a well-disciplined driving public.
