Last Saturday, while on board my shift here in Y101, we received reports that there was a heavy traffic build up along the Mandaue highway.

The traffic jam was so long that it reached the town of Lilo-an. The cause of the traffic jam was due to a traffic accident involving a truck and ten cars. After a few minutes, report started coming in that a truck coming from the north lost its breaks and rammed on to motorists along the intersection of Mandaue Highway and Kanduman road, as a result of which there was one severe casualty. When we tried to verify these reports from Twitter and Facebook, we saw several posts regarding this incident from motorist in the area, which included pictures of the casualty. It showed what seemed to be entrails scattered on the road.  This was surely a gruesome sight. I would like to share with you a couple of responsibilities that one must be aware to avoid these kinds of tragedies from happening.

First of all, I know that social media is a very useful tool especially for us in mainstream media. I also know that most of us would like to report incidents such as these as a way to share with those who are following us. These posts have several purposes: to help in disseminating useful information, to show the real side of the story (and to brag that we were there first), so on and so forth. But for us in mainstream media, there are ethics that we must follow and these ethics are meant to protect the integrity of the story that we tell. Let’s take this incident as an example. How do you think the victim’s family and friends would feel when they see these pictures that being passed on and shared by almost everyone on Facebook? I just later on learned that the victim was a basketball coach in a school, how would these kids feel when they see those pictures of their coach? It would become a traumatic experience that would stay with them for the rest of their lives. I hope people would be more sensitive about how their post could affect others.

The first responders like the traffic enforcers, police, and emergency medical units should have covered the mangled body of the victim on the road. That would have been the first thing that they did after addressing those other victims who needed medical attention. They have the responsibility to preserve the dignity of the victim.

Second of all, later on that day, I received reports that that truck involved lost its breaks.  This is very common here. We have heard of several incidents about trucks losing their breaks in accidents like these. This one took one life and in others, it took several. I do not find this reason acceptable especially if it happens often. There are government agencies like the LTO and the LTFRB that are tasked to insure that the vehicles on the road are safe and worthy to be operated. The truck or bus owner also has the responsibility to operate these vehicles with safety in mind. This involves regular check ups and maintenance. Clearly, both were not very thorough in their responsibilities and because of this, a life was lost.