What I Learned After My Car Got Hit by a Tricycle

While on my way to hear mass at the National Shrine of the Sacred Heart last Wednesday, a wayward tricycle hit the left side of my bumper and left a foot-long scrape. Ok, I was known to be a helldriver (for a girl) but not at 6:40 in the morning and certainly not in front of the church!

First of all the tricycle was counter-flowing on one-way Dao Street. Second, before hitting my car, the driver almost hit the white BMW infront of me and when the tricycle didn't budge, the BMW swerved to the right. As the BMW was moving past him, the tricycle driver eyed the car behind him but continued moving forward until he hit my car! Third and the worse, the tricycle driver was drunk! He was ranting about it was my fault that I hit him and that I was the one on the wrong lane, etc. I calmly (even I was surprised with myself) told him that this was a one-way street and if I was the one who hit him then his tricycle would have been ripped to pieces considering the mass ratio of our vehicles. He was about to resume his tirade when I told him to shut up (now that's more like me) until the proper authorities arrived.

As I was pretty sure that the drunk driver had no way of paying for the damages, I wanted to make sure that at the very least he would learn his lesson. When the MAPSA (Makati Public Safety Assistance Group) officer asked for our respective licenses and registrations, I readily complied but turned out the tricycle had no papers and was last registered in 2004! We ended up at the Makati Traffic Bureau where PO3 Aparace received my complaint and ticketed the driver for "driving unregistered vehicle" the cost of which was merely Php 1,000 to claim his confiscated license and have his tricycle released from the impound. From here it gets weird. Drunk driver goes off on a crazy outburst to have him incarcerated instead of confiscating his license! PO3 Aparece was really tempted to throw him into jail with his drunken ramblings. A friend of the driver arrived and started negotiating with me to forgive his "kumpare", forget about the whole incident and let his friend walk off without suffering any consequences from his careless behavior since, he had the audacity to say, they were "kapus-palad" (destitute) and that Filipinos are known to have "fun every now and then" thus the drinking.

And this is where I almost lost it.

Now it was I who went into a tirade and told the two nincompoops that they both claim to be dirt-poor and yet had the money to spend for their drinking binge! More importantly, our country remains backward because of Filipinos like them who would rather stick it out being indigent so that they can be spoon-fed by dirty politicians and use their status as a free card to get away with practically everything! I almost got a standing ovation from the police officers in the bureau. They were all laughing and mocking the two men! The two were so dumbfounded by my scolding, they immediately shut up and hurriedly took the ticket. They even apologized and offered to shake my hand. I reluctantly accepted and told the driver that if he really wanted to improve his way of living then he should divert his expenses for drinking towards the sustenance and education of his children.

So, hoping that somehow I made a mark on their idle minds, I learned that these kind of people still exist in our country and if it would take a traffic accident to wake them up from their erring ways, then I will find the time though hopefully without the vehicular damage :-)

I believe that change starts with one person. If we have enough hope and believe that we can transform our country by change then we have a bright future!