I saw this news bit as I was riding the bus home last night and found something amiss.
It looks like the only one doing any reckless driving here is the
motorcycle driver, using the usual undisciplined tactic of trying to
overtake in-between lanes. The traffic cam footage cuts from when the
motorcycle fell, so I'm left to assume that the motorcycle drifted close
towards the truck's flatbed and lost control and fell, sliding under
the truck, then the rear set of tires ran over the victim's head.
Assuming
that's the case, the truck driver most likely wouldn't have had enough
time to react, being hit from the side and already towards the truck's
rear.
While I agree that officials were remiss in
not getting the truck's plate number immediately upon flagging it down, I
find it disappointing that the motorcycle driver's role in this tragedy
goes under-reported. Reckless driving by motorcycle drivers is a
serious issue in Philippine roads, and just about every motorcycle
driver I see out and about does it, and no, I'm not exaggerating.
And
of course, since this segment is filed under "Hulicam", there's an
unintentional (I hope) assignment of guilt to the truck driver from the
get-go of the news report.
Feel free to chime in if there's something I missed, but just given this video, that's what I can discern of what happened.
As an aside, it's a legitimately scary thought that more and more motorcycles
enter PH roads every year, while driver discipline (or the lack
thereof) remains unchecked. Of course, reckless driving permeates all throughout the driving public regardless of vehicle driven, but motorcycle drivers break rules more often than motorists of any other vehicle type, from my own experience.
79% of traffic
fatalities are supposedly caused by driver error. I wonder how many of those are actually from just being a douche on the road?
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