When you see a large vehicle charging behind you on the highway with its blinkers and matching sirens turned on, what do you do? Move the heck out of the way, of course.
Sadly, in such scenarios, there isn’t always an emergency. Sometimes, you’re just giving way to your everyday douchebag trying to bulldoze his way through traffic, not to an actual patrol car or ambulance trying to save lives. As law-abiding motorists, we find it irritating, of course. Plus, it’s downright illegal.
Hopefully, though, we’ll start seeing less of these transgressors, starting in the metro. Why so? Well, according to a report by GMA News, the Philippine National Police–Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) recently conducted a one-time, big-time operation to crack down on motorists illegally using blinkers and sirens on private vehicles.
The PNP-HPG manned the streets of Quezon City, specifically Katipunan Avenue, to flag down erring motorists. Those caught with these illegal accessories installed—one of them being an actual policeman—were asked to dismantle the said accessories on the spot and were also ticketed for their violations. Frankly, this should be enough of a warning for all you violators out there.
What accessories are illegal on the road
“Ayon sa HPG, bawal ang blinker at sirena sa mga pribadong sasakyan. Pulis, fire, at iba pang official emergency vehicle lang ang pwede gumamit nito,” said GMA News reporter Emil Sumangil.
“Baka gamitin ng ibang mga masasamang loob at i-take advantage nila,” said PNP-HPG NCR regional chief Joshua Alejandro.
The HPG also cracked down on vehicles without plate numbers and motorcycle riders without proper licenses or documents during its operations. You can check out the full report below:
Damn, what a sight for sore eyes. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we’ll see more ops like these from the PNP-HPG, and that eventually, we’ll no longer have to deal with wannabe emergency vehicles on the road anymore.
