# An Unpleasant Reminder of Things



## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

Yesterday my wife and I had an experience which really drove home the point that we are living in a developing country, and once again, the rule of law here isn't really what it is back home. 

Usually we go out early in the day to run our errands, but yesterday we decided to go out in the late-afternoon, and we got stuck in some unexpected early rush hour traffic on the mostly two lane highway running around the perimeter of our island. 

It took us about an hour to creep two kilometers, and eventually we came across a large dump truck that had broken down in the opposing lane of traffic facing us, and the other drivers were simply not interested in taking turns when trying to maneuver around the broken dump truck. To make matters worse, a group of locals had the rear axle of the truck up on bottle jacks, and they had their arms in legs sticking into the passing traffic as they worked on their truck. 

Eventually we get our way around the stranded dump truck, and then we had about five-hundred meters of clear sailing before we were stopped by several jeepneys that were blocking traffic in front of a local elementary school that was just letting out. There were kids, tricycles, and jeepneys everywhere, and the only thing we could do was to sit and wait for the road ahead of us to clear out.

As we were sitting there, a young boy of approximately seven or eight years of age ran past the front of our car, and then right straight into the oncoming traffic on the other side of the road. 

As the little boy entered the oncoming traffic lane, he had a very close near miss with a small motorcycle that went speeding by, and he darted back to my side of the road to avoid being hit by the motorcycle. However, not more than a second after that he immediately darted right back into the oncoming traffic, without looking, and was promptly hit by a Suzuki jeepney that was traveling at roughly ten-fifteen kilometers per hour.

The impact tossed the little boy just like a ragdoll, and the sheet metal on the front of the jeepney made a loud thud sound as it contacted the boy's body. The kid flew about ten-fifteen feet through the air, but somehow he was able to land on his feet. However, as soon as his feet hit the ground the jeepney plowed into him a second time, this time knocking him to the ground in front of the jeepney's front bumper. This time the little boy rolled along on the ground as the front bumper kept catching him. Eventually his body got worked around towards the driver's side of the jeepney, and he ended up laying face down between my car and the jeepney. The front left wheel of the jeepney ran over the little boy's upper arm, and then finally the jeepney came to a complete halt. 

The boy laid there for approximately one second before hopping and running back across in front of my car towards the direction he had originally came from. As he passed by I noticed that he had numerous traumatic injuries, but he fled the area very quickly, and we immediately lost sight of him. 

Meanwhile the jeepney driver was leaning out his window, and I got a good clear look at his blood shot glassy eyes and I could tell straight off that the guy was flying on some sort of drugs. The jeepney driver took look one look at me, and then he floored his accelerator and took off. I shouted to some people that were standing by a near sari-sari store, "Stop that guy, he almost killed that kid!" Several people took off running towards the fleeing jeepney, and since he was headed towards the bottle neck in the traffic caused by the broke down dump truck, I think that there is a good chance that they probably caught him. After that the traffic on my side of the road cleared up, so I continued driving. 

I know that the little boy is at least partially at fault for what happened, but the driver of the jeepney was traveling far too fast for the conditions in front of the elementary school, and he fled the scene after he hitting the boy. Also, at no point did the jeepney actually lock up its brakes, and I wouldn't be surprised if this idiot was speeding around with defective brakes on his vehicle, and that is why it took him so long to stop after the first impact between the front of his jeepney and the little boy's body. 

Nobody likes seeing things like this happening to small children, and the entire thing has gotten us both a little rattled.


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## M.C.A. (Feb 24, 2013)

Thanks Maxx for sharing this story, when I see something like this it just hurts me badly especially little kids its agonizing, yes the child shouldn't have been there but wow... no respect for human life whatsoever by drivers.

I witnessed something similar recently I was on my bike and turned a corner only to see a toddler stuck underneath a trike and people trying to get him out from underneath and the trike driver laughing he he he heeeee like nothing ever happened and everyone around me headed to the scene with concerned looks, the driver didn't even try to get off of his trike and he kids inside his trike as passengers nobody got off the trike in order to make and citizens trying to get the toddler out he was stuck underneath.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

Both of these incidents goes to reinforce the fact that we are in a 3rd world country. Not much we as foreigners can do about it. Living amongst the masses here, it seems as if I see something almost daily which would not be tolerated in some other places but it is not our place to correct the world, and would do no good to even try. Thus it basicly comes down to 'mind your own business' and don't get involved in local matters. I have fully adopted the manner of "flying below the radar" as much as possible.

Fred


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

fmartin_gila said:


> Both of these incidents goes to reinforce the fact that we are in a 3rd world country. Not much we as foreigners can do about it. Living amongst the masses here, it seems as if I see something almost daily which would not be tolerated in some other places but it is not our place to correct the world, and would do no good to even try. Thus it basicly comes down to 'mind your own business' and don't get involved in local matters. I have fully adopted the manner of "flying below the radar" as much as possible.
> 
> Fred


Yeah I know, I pretty much do the same thing most of the time, however this time it bugged me a little bit more than usual because it was a young kid involved. A few years ago we saw a guy on a motorcycle get run over by a taxi, while the motorcycle rider was making an illegal left turn. When everything was said and done, the motorcycle rider ended up wedged underneath a 2006 Toyota Corolla, with his face directly smashed into the cross member below engine oil pan. When we got out there to look the guy under the car was still having seizures, but no one lifted a finger to move the car off of him (as they would have done in a Western country). Instead everyone just kept looking at the accident in the middle of the street like they were watching a circus. That one didn't bother so much because the motorcycle rider was clearly an adult, and should have known better than to cut off a moving car while making a left turn. Should have known better but he didn't.


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## Maxx62 (Dec 31, 2013)

M.C.A. said:


> Thanks Maxx for sharing this story, when I see something like this it just hurts me badly especially little kids its agonizing, yes the child shouldn't have been there but wow... no respect for human life whatsoever by drivers.
> 
> I witnessed something similar recently I was on my bike and turned a corner only to see a toddler stuck underneath a trike and people trying to get him out from underneath and the trike driver laughing he he he heeeee like nothing ever happened and everyone around me headed to the scene with concerned looks, the driver didn't even try to get off of his trike and he kids inside his trike as passengers nobody got off the trike in order to make and citizens trying to get the toddler out he was stuck underneath.


In this case I think that the people chasing after the jeepney were mostly parents, and I wouldn't be surprised if the jeepney driver caught a little bit of a beat down for running away after he hit the young boy. I don't know what they're teaching kids in school over here, but apparently they aren't teaching them to watch both ways before crossing the street. Yeah, that's just despicable regarding the toddler stuck under the tricycle, and I bet that if someone were to check the tricycle driver's blood, they'd find out that he's flying dirty when he ran that little kid over.


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## Stevesolar (Dec 21, 2012)

Maxx62 said:


> In this case I think that the people chasing after the jeepney were mostly parents, and I wouldn't be surprised if the jeepney driver caught a little bit of a beat down for running away after he hit the young boy. I don't know what they're teaching kids in school over here, but apparently they aren't teaching them to watch both ways before crossing the street. Yeah, that's just despicable regarding the toddler stuck under the tricycle, and I bet that if someone were to check the tricycle driver's blood, they'd find out that he's flying dirty when he ran that little kid over.


Out of interest - if the driver that hit the small child was high on drugs - did he risk being shot and would anybody get in trouble for shooting him?


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## Asian Spirit (Mar 1, 2010)

Stevesolar said:


> Out of interest - if the driver that hit the small child was high on drugs - did he risk being shot and would anybody get in trouble for shooting him?


Hard to tell really. First, in most cases the police don't check for being high on drugs or alcohol. It would depend a lot on location, the police officer involved, and most important the number of potential witnesses. Even then, most people here will claim to have seen nothing even if they saw the entire incident. To get involved here is to at times risk your own life. Not healthy.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

Asian Spirit said:


> Hard to tell really. First, in most cases the police don't check for being high on drugs or alcohol. It would depend a lot on location, the police officer involved, and most important the number of potential witnesses. Even then, most people here will claim to have seen nothing even if they saw the entire incident. To get involved here is to at times risk your own life. Not healthy.


My Asawa tells me this is the reason the so called Traffic Enforcer's will let so much go by even though they see so much violation of the laws, especially if the vehicle has darkly tinted windows. They are afraid someone will merely roll down the window and shoot them. This place does seem to me to be(in development) where the US would have been out in the western states during the late 1800s.

Fred


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## Asian Spirit (Mar 1, 2010)

fmartin_gila said:


> My Asawa tells me this is the reason the so called Traffic Enforcer's will let so much go by even though they see so much violation of the laws, especially if the vehicle has darkly tinted windows. They are afraid someone will merely roll down the window and shoot them. This place does seem to me to be(in development) where the US would have been out in the western states during the late 1800s.
> 
> Fred


I agree with your wife Fred. Just last year some angry driver got out of his car in Manila and physically assaulted a traffic enforcer. Even with the thread of death if I recall correctly. Only reason the driver was held accountable was that someone took a video of the incident and was good enough to provide it to the authorities.

I have a friend that works passenger service for American Airlines in Dallas TX. He's married to a Filipina and has traveled the world many times over. In his opinion, the Philippines is the only place on earth where the clocks run backward and it is not a developing country. Rather it is evolution in reverse. Many times and in many circumstances I would have to agree with him.


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## fmartin_gila (May 15, 2011)

Asian Spirit said:


> I agree with your wife Fred. Just last year some angry driver got out of his car in Manila and physically assaulted a traffic enforcer. Even with the thread of death if I recall correctly. Only reason the driver was held accountable was that someone took a video of the incident and was good enough to provide it to the authorities.
> 
> I have a friend that works passenger service for American Airlines in Dallas TX. He's married to a Filipina and has traveled the world many times over. In his opinion, the Philippines is the only place on earth where the clocks run backward and it is not a developing country. Rather it is evolution in reverse. Many times and in many circumstances I would have to agree with him.


Yeah I remember reading about the assault on the Traffic Enforcer. What surprises me is that someone actually did voluntarily come forward with the evidence/vid.

I tend to agree with your second paragraph, there are times when is does seem kind of normalish but then again there are other times.......? Maybe what seems kind of normal here depends on how far we can look the other way.

Fred


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## Asian Spirit (Mar 1, 2010)

fmartin_gila said:


> Yeah I remember reading about the assault on the Traffic Enforcer. What surprises me is that someone actually did voluntarily come forward with the evidence/vid.
> 
> I tend to agree with your second paragraph, there are times when is does seem kind of normalish but then again there are other times.......? Maybe what seems kind of normal here depends on how far we can look the other way.
> 
> Fred


Surprised me too that someone would risk themselves providing the video. Thing is that this is a dangerous place to be if not awfully careful. But then as I say that, it appears our native America an other peoples home countries are getting to be just about the same. Maybe I'm just "use to it" here but it's starting to feel and seem this is the better place to be--notwithstanding the dinosaurs and the the Flintstones..


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