Road rage in Mandaue ends in fistfight: TEAM chief urges drivers to be calm on the road

A driver of an L300 and a cabbie let their anger get the best of them and ended up in a fistfight in the middle of the road. | Screengrab from Flex Medina’s video

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — An official of the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (TEAM) is once again reminding drivers to keep calm, relax, and not let their anger get the best of them especially when they are driving.

The reminder came after, drivers of a taxi and an L300 van ended in a fistfight along Highway Seno, Barangay Bakilid in the city at around 7 a.m. on Wednesday.

TEAM legal officer Hyll Retuya said that the drivers were possibly trying to steal spaces on the road which resulted in the altercation.

Fistfight in middle of road

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Retuya said that the fight did not last long, according to the traffic personnel in the area.

“Paghuman nila og sumbagay, nanlakaw ra pod sila. Nagpahungaw ra seguro to sila sa ila’ng gibati, wala ta ato’y record, walay apprehension kay pagduol sa ato’ng personnel nanglakaw ra sila. Wala ray damage,” said Retuya.

(After the fistfight, they just left. They were just perhaps allowing their anger and feelings to be expressed. We had no record of them, no apprehension because when our personnel approached them they hurriedly left. There was also no damage.)

The fight was captured by Flex Albert Medina on his phone.

How the road rage incident happened

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Medina said that the conflict started even before reaching Highway Seno. 

He said when they were in the Maguikay flyover, the taxi driver allegedly drove quickly and passed the van, but the traffic light turned red and the taxi stopped as the driver waited for the red light to turn green.)

“Kato’ng naabot na sa flyover sa Maguikay, nisutoy ang taxi og gisuwayan niya og counterflow sa flyover, unya na-timing man na stoplight red, mao ni una og naog ang ang kato’ng L300 kay lage init na kaayo sila duha,” said Medina.

(When they reached the flyover, the taxi drove quickly and tried to counterflow at the flyover but then the stoplight turned red, that is why the driver of the L300 got off his vehicle first, because he and the taxi driver were really already angry at each other.)

Drivers urged: Keep calm on the road

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Because of this, TEAM legal officer Hyll Retuya is reminding drivers to always keep calm and follow traffic rules.

“Kung masangit gale ta sa traffic, relax lang, keep calm, dili padala sa kalagot labi na og naay kagitgitan. Mas maayo molakaw na lang gyud ta para dili kacreate og chaos ug kagubot sa dalan,” he said.

(If you are caught in traffic, just relax, keep calm, don’t let anger get the best of you especially during heavy traffic. It would be better if you would just leave so that you cannot create chaos and trouble on the road.)

READ: Road courtesy: the best way to avoid road rage