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I was asked about the safeness of our islands recently. What do you say after all the recent tragic fatalities that have stormed headlines these days. The murder of the MHS guard Ballestros, the fatal accident of drunken driving in two recent occasions, the stabbing of a courtesy ride to a hitchhiker. My son says, "Is Saipan safe?"
Wow, what has our island come to. We always portray pride in how we love, how we carry ourselves as individuals, and how we wish for people to percieve the very nature of our hospitality. Where are we headed with these activities. Sure, the Highway Safety is now conducting more sobriety checks, but in my recent drive to Papago, I was behind yet, low and behold, another drunk driver on the road. I honked and honked to get his attention and he was with a few others. They ignored my presence of trying to get there attention. They speed up and leave me in a cloud of road dust. Now, what would you do if you were in such a situation? Call the cops, give your location and hopefully they catch up to them? I did not have my cel phone then, should I have followed them as they sped or slow down and show that I have no interest so they can drive slower and be more responsible.
Of course I wanted to follow, I wanted to call, I wanted to ensure that they get off the road as they may hurt others in passing. But think of it, a stretch of road from San Vicente to Capitol Hill, steep hills, blind spots, turns- lefts and rights, slick when damp or wet, you name the conditions of the road, it is found the
re. I see no Officers! No traffic personnel looking out for such eventful happenings, no law to put justice, peace and safety during this back road drive experience. It is pretty scary if you think about.
I know DPS is short handed, but then you have so many on a check point in one area and everyone else is fleeing to use alternative routes to drive. What do you do?
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5 comments:
I'm usually a glass-is-half-full kind of guy, so I look at the recent tragedies as exceptions: they wouldn't affect us so strongly if they weren't unusual.
I hope that's true.
I know what you mean about the driver; that happens to me every month or so. Dangerous drivers with no patrol car in sight. Just remember, studies show using a cell phone driving is almost as dangerous as driving drunk:)
Maybe we could learn from Tinian. I read that they've had no DUIs this year.
That's a good way to look at it... I too hope it's true and that all this will subside as an exception.
As for Tinian, Smaller community, everyone knows each other, they basically may apply a slap on the wrist and say go home, but again, where do you go on Tinian? Especially if you live there and been around once too many times. Lol.
Thanks for the comment.
Is Saipan safe? As compared to where? Safe as in what? Depends I guess. I tell visitors Saipan is relatively safe.
looks like i need to get back to reading the newspaper and watching the news ... i didn't know about all of those incidents until i finish reading your blog.... it seems like saipan's becoming a dangerous place to live in but again not as dangerous compared to other places :)
i guess the best way to solve that problem is to be responsible with our own actions especially that we all know what's right and wrong --- not wearing seatbelt is wrong and drinking and driving is wrong. we can not help people who refused to be helped.
by the way, hope you don't mind, i've a tag for you... http://daredtohope.wordpress.com/ :)
It's funny how the question comes up on comparison of the safe to other destinations. I did not come to realize my post until after I saw the comments from bloggers Paguroidea and Rache, thanks by the way.
I think I left that important facet "as compared to what?", just because I traveled to so many places in my past and came to figure that everyone might have done the same, oops, regardless, it's true I should have had a comparison, say Guam for that matter...Thanks guys...
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