Remember the video below? It was uploaded online by the crew of an emergency vehicle last year while trying to navigate their way through the standstill traffic of rush-hour EDSA. In the video, a motorcycle rider seemed to be trying his very best to “escort” the emergency vehicle despite clearly doing more harm than good.
Though his intentions were noble, his lack of proper motorcycle escort training and exuberance only made things worse not only for him but also for the emergency response team.
On Tuesday, President Rodrigo Duterte, amid reports that a lot of patients were dying while in an ambulance in heavy traffic, called for the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) and the Philippine National Police – Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) to escort ambulances, and to some degree, other emergency response vehicles through the heavy traffic.
“That will be a mandatory work for them,” the President said during his speech.
We wish to remind regular riders to please give way rather than volunteer to escort. Your intentions may be good, but the MMDA and PNP-HPG riders have been trained for these scenarios and are more familiar with the proper procedure. The best that we can do is to give way and allow them to pass safely.
