Actor AJ Perez died last Sunday. Reports said he was riding a van and was asleep. The van got into an alleged head on collision with a Partas bus. But later reports said that the accident was not a head on collision, but another kind. My family and I just came home from a 10 day Luzon tour so we did a lot of driving from Manila to Bayombong to Banaue to Tuguegarao to Pagudpud to Vigan to Tarlac and back to Manila.
Most of our provincial highways are merely 2 lane roads. Overtaking is constant. There are a few 4 lane roads near Tarlac city, but most are 2 lane roads. Here are some of me and my wife’s notes on how to avoid accidents on these dangerous narrow roads:
Expect anything over a hill… so do not overtake coming up the hill, you never know what may pop up.
Expect anything behind a sharp mountain curve.
Drive slowly and comfortably compensating for your own errors and other drivers’ errors. This is important. I will drive only 60 to 70 kph on the 2 lane roads. And only when absolutely clear do I go at 80 kph and I keep my distance from the next one in front of me. I have room to compensate when I brake my car so if the driver behind me cannot brake in time, I advance my car more. This has saved me a couple of times from being sandwiched.
Overtake only when absolutely sure and that there is a margin of safety for you to come back to your spot. Not those one shot overtake or be dead type of overtaking.
Take note of your airconditioner compressor kicking in when overtaking. I don’t care if I’ve got a powerful Toyota Fortuner, when in a tight overtake, I turn off the airconditioner compressor just to be sure. It’s that extra margin of power that may count.
When tired or sleepy, stop. Don’t drive. We spend the extra money to stay overnight in hotels. We did hotel stops in Bayombong and Tuguegarao to break up long trips.
Don’t text or call on your cell phone when driving. When the office needed my attention with a few phone calls, my wife took over my driving.
Avoid driving at night. Drive only during the day. Night driving adds the danger of not being to see as clearly as in the day. It’s faster for the buses as there is no traffic, and may make business sense for the bus company, but for us normal and infrequent road trip family parents, day driving is a must.
We drove towards the direction of Tarlac last Saturday afternoon but there was much traffic. So we took a detour and hit directly La Paz instead and got on the SCTEX.