By Monico D. Mekaniko
By Monico D. Mekaniko
MAKATI CITY, METRO MANILA – A driving contest along EDSA seeks to teach and encourage road safety measures in the Philippines.
Oil company Total Philippines Co. has launched Drive City, a live driving competition wherein participants’ goal is to get from one pit stop to the next while keeping to road guidelines.
The nationwide contest requires a two-man team composed of a navigator and a driver, both of whom must be at least 21 years old and with a valid driver’s license. There will be categories for private vehicle owners as well as drivers of taxi cabs.
The contest has already started collecting participants with qualified teams to be announced on August 27.
During the contest proper, participants must navigate through several “Test Point Challenges,” such as U-turns, X-boxes, lane changing, lane merging, and passing. Successfully passing each test point challenge would be worth five points while failure will get zero points. The top three to get the highest points until the end of the race will win.
Participants must also avoid accruing traffic violations as these will be deducted from the overall points.
The route of the contest will include select Total service stations in Metro Manila.
Total Philippines Corporate Communications Manager Malou Espina said the company started the Drive City contest as a way to help inculcate discipline among Filipino drivers.
Citing statistics from various government agencies such as the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG), there have been 85,820 reported road accidents across the country by the end of 2011. Of this figure, 1,833 people were killed and another 29,000 were injured.
Referring to another report from the Department of Health (DOH), Espina said road accidents is also placed fourth as top cause of deaths in the Philippines.
“We are all road users, whether as drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and sadly, road safety has been taken for granted by many as evidenced by statistics from the MMDA and PNP-HPG. Through Drive City, we aim to improve road safety awareness and ultimately, strengthen our community of safe road users,” Espina said.
Till next time, this is Monico D. Mekaniko, Va-va-vroom!
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