There are no atheist drivers on metro roads. Especially during the monsoon season. Who wouldn’t pray for divine intervention whenever there’s at least 15 minutes of sustained rains for some divine power to part flood waters for our cars to pass through? Pretty much like the favors the god of the Old Testament did for his buddy Moses.
So take this guy Chris Lao. The poor unfortunate soul who made an amphibious assault on a stretch of flooded road albeit a failed one worthy of being labeled by internet hooligans as “epic.” This clip from GMA 7’s 24 Oras has made its viral rounds and the driver’s now a virtual mascot for idiocy.
The black book to Metro driving dictates that whenever there’s a significant amount of water on the road, you have to observe certain conditions first before even attempting to cross. You can estimate the depth of the flood water by observing how other vehicles cross or if the sidewalk gutters are still visible. Wisdom dictates that you shouldn’t brave any flood that would reach more than halfway the car’s tires.
Now, I’m quite notorious at calling out plenty of drivers who I consider to be the bastard love children of dumb and dumber. But to be fair to Chris Lao, I think he was represented quite badly by the media in this one. All drivers make errors in judgments. He crossed a patch of flood water that should not have been crossed and managed to sound magnanimous in front of a national news camera despite a clearly foolish move .
But any driver who makes a similar error in judgment would be as livid. His attitude’s not much different from cursing and placing hexes on government officials whenever you run over a massive crater that you failed to see. It’s just too bad he did it on camera with his nipples poking through his wet white shirt.
If there’s anyone that deserves a viral bashing, it should’ve been the media (and then the government). Ever wondered if the news crew even made any effort at all to warn or even help the guy. We know they weren’t part of the tambay ng kanto rescue crew who pushed the car to safety. Chortling at a livid person while holding a robotic penis to his face is just so… Oh well.
No divine intervention for Chris Lao. Only the wrath of an angry Facebook mob.