You’ve probably already seen the video of that incident in Guagua, Pampanga wherein a Toyota Innova was recklessly driven on the highway. The unfortunate event went viral on social media and has been the subject of a lot of discussions over the past couple of days or so.
We’re not here to point fingers or add insult to any injuries—that won’t do anyone any good. Instead, we’re here to point out a few things that we noticed in the video before the accident even occurred, in the hopes that such an article might prevent similar incidents in the future.
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1) It was nighttime on a very busy highway. With trucks.
We’re all for spirited drives here at Top Gear Philippines—how do you think we test cars anyway? But apart from sticking to speed limits whenever we’re on public roads—something the driver in the video here failed to do—we also pick wide open roads to drive on if we want to have a bit more fun than usual.
The people in the video were clearly on a busy highway, at night, with a bunch of trucks passing through. Even if you were driving normally and within the limit, those conditions already add a lot of difficulty to the situation. It just isn’t a very ideal road to be driving on, regardless of the driver’s skill or behavior.
2) There was an absolute lack of awareness.
My teammate Anton Andres says the driver lacked spatial awareness, but I said he lacks road awareness. So yeah, he lacked both.
Firstly, if he wasn’t that familiar with the road he was on, he should’ve been more careful. But let’s assume he did, in which case, he should’ve known a narrower bridge was coming up. Then why’d he hit the curb?
As for that bridge, it technically had room for four cars in total, but it was a no-brainer that the road was going to get narrower as you crossed the bridge. That’s why you never overtake on a bridge, especially with one as short and narrow as that. If the driver had the proper spatial awareness, he probably wouldn’t have hit the curb and crashed onto the side of the road even if he went side-by-side with a truck.
If other tests need to be done, we go to enclosed and secured locations. That condition was also never met in the video.
3) They were driving an Innova.
Say what you want to defend the Toyota name, but it’s a fact that the Innova just isn’t built for racetracks—not that the guys in the video were in one, anyway. Other cars would’ve fit that four-lane bridge better, or they might’ve handled better and the driver probably wouldn’t have lost control. It was a bad idea from the start.
4) The driver didn’t look like he was wearing a seatbelt.
Do we really have to expound on this? We took a closer look at the video and it appeared he didn’t have his seatbelt on. No matter the situation, buckling up is non-negotiable whenever you’re behind the wheel.
5) They were having too much fun.
The windows were rolled down, and the passengers were shouting and singing loudly. These might seem like they had nothing to do with the incident, but they definitely affected the driver’s decisions. Heck, even I was distracted by all the noise inside the vehicle.
Having fun behind the wheel is normal. But too much of a good thing is bad. And that’s what happened here. Drive safe out there, folks.
