ILOILO City – Road rage-related incidents in Western Visayas are infrequent but it is best for motorists to always keep their cool while on the road.
Drivers must know how to buckle up anger and muster longer patience, according to Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) spokesperson Police Lieutenant Colonel Joem Malong.
“When confronted with an aggressive driver, take charge of your actions and emotions so that a bad situation doesn’t get worse,” Malong said.
What’s aggressive driving? That’s when a driver exceeds the speed limit, or follows too closely another vehicle, or fails to obey traffic controls and makes improper turns. Malong said these behaviors will likely result to a road rage.
Road rage incidents in the region in the past six years were, in fact, rare. Based on PRO-6 records, there were only 21.
Year 2018 had the highest number of road rage incidents with seven; 2017 with four; 2019 and 2021 with three each; and 2016 and 2020 with two incidents each.
Iloilo province had seven cases so far, including the recent incident from weeks ago in the town of Santa Barbara, Iloilo involving Philippine Army soldiers and an official of the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology who died. It was followed by Bacolod City with five and Iloilo City with four.
Malong said drivers should observe some of these to avoid road rage:
* Avoid conflict. It is best to assume that other driver’s mistakes are not personal.
* Never attempt to take the right of way. It must be given to you by other drivers.
* When using high-beam headlights, return to low-beam headlights as soon as you detect an incoming vehicle
* Do not drive behind another vehicle with your high-beam headlights on.
* Be as polite on the road as you would be in any other social situation. You cannot control traffic, but you can control your responses to it.
“There is nothing wrong if you are a cool driver,” Malong added./PN
