YESTERDAY, September 28, 2023, a grade 4 pupil from Sta. Ana Central Elementary School was hit by a bus at Trading Boulevard, in Davao City, a nightmare for any parents. At first glance, one could say it’s just another ordinary road accident because accidents do happen.

But it’s not.

Social media posts show that the young girl was crossing the street using the pedestrian lane.

A pedestrian lane, according to the Cambridge dictionary, is a special place in a road where traffic must stop to allow people to walk across. Thus, one could surmise that it is nearly impossible for a road mishap involving a pedestrian and a vehicle on a pedestrian lane to occur.

These days, however, it is observed that pedestrian lanes are useless white lines on highways or roads. Most of the drivers now don’t respect them anymore. And it’s saddening because more than anyone, it should be the drivers who know what a pedestrian lane is and how they should act whenever they are approaching it. For, after all, they are the ones who attend traffic regulations seminars and this is, in fact, compulsory for them before they get a license to drive.

Just last year, the Davao City Transport and Traffic Management Office (CTTMO) reminded motorists, including pedestrians, to respect traffic rules and regulations.

Based on the City Information Office (CIO) news report on September 9, 2022, CTTMO chief Dionisio Abude said “road safety starts with drivers themselves.”

He also said that during seminars, drivers are oriented to slow down when approaching a pedestrian lane.

“Importante gyud na nga mag-menor ka kay agianan man na sa tao. Kung approaching ka sa pedestrian lane, menor ka aron sakto nga maka-brake ka og duna’y mutabok. (It’s really important to slow down since that’s where people cross. If you are approaching a pedestrian lane, you should slow down so that you can [apply] brakes in time for someone to cross), Abide said as stated in a CIO news report.

Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, in the same news report, was cited to have called on motorists to give way to pedestrians.

“Kita- kita lang bitaw diri aning syudara ni, maghinatagay ta. Kita mo sa mga tao sa pedestrian crossing, patabuka sad ninyo (it’s just us in the city, let’s give way to each other. When you see people at the pedestrian crossing, let them pass),” the mayor said in a radio interview cited by the CIO news report.

But in the closed-circuit television camera footage that was circulated on social media, a different thing happened. The bus continued to move even when the girl was still crossing the street on a pedestrian lane. Based on layman’s observation, it could be that the driver was blind, thus he should not be driving, especially a bus at that. Because how could he miss a pedestrian crossing with his huge and wide windshield? Or his mind was not on what he was doing that day.

Both are dangerous if you are a driver as these could harm you and the people around you.

But if the reason is because drivers these days don’t know what pedestrian lanes are for, then for Heaven’s sake, concerned agencies, make them relearn the basics.