In a world where humanity is preparing to reach Mars, it’s hard to accept that we still lose lives to blind spots just a few feet away from massive vehicles on our roads. A tragedy recently hit close to home—Josie Yee Tan, a passionate tutor and valued member of our educational company, was fatally run over by a truck while crossing the road. Her life was cut short in a way that could have been entirely preventable if only existing, accessible technologies were put to proper use.
Large vehicles such as trucks and buses come with inherent blind spots. These blind zones—especially around the front, sides, and rear—create deadly risks for pedestrians and cyclists. It’s baffling to think that in an era where we have rovers roaming the Martian surface with 360-degree vision, we still operate road monsters here on Earth that can’t fully “see” the people right next to them.
We already have the technology to prevent these tragic accidents from happening so why don’t we make them mandatory? Dash-mounted monitors connected to multiple external cameras—similar to the 360-degree camera systems found in modern cars—are not groundbreaking innovations anymore. They are affordable, scalable, and life-saving. These camera systems provide real-time visibility around the vehicle and eliminate the guesswork that leads to these horrific accidents. But despite their availability, why are they still optional upgrades rather than standard safety requirements? How many more tragic deaths like what happened to our tutor must happen before we take this wake-up call seriously?
This has to change. Like now.
Truck and bus manufacturers must be compelled—by law—to install such camera systems on all future models. The same way seatbelts, airbags, and anti-lock braking systems became mandatory over time, these visibility systems must no longer be optional add-ons. If a vehicle is so large that the driver cannot see all around it, then it is too dangerous to be driven without a technological solution built in. We should no longer be conditioned to be accepting of “Hindi ko nakita (I did not see)” that’s why the accident happened. Or to blatantly blame “blind spots” as an “acceptable” excuse for why accidents happen. This massive idiocy of justifying blind spots in huge vehicles must end and be considered a crime.
We call on the Philippine Government, especially regulatory bodies under the Department of Transportation and the Land Transportation Office, to take this seriously. Safety should be a priority in policymaking. Vehicle safety laws must evolve with the times. These features should not be left to the discretion of fleet owners or operators but must be enforced as a minimum standard for all future sales of large vehicles in the country.
Let us not wait for more names to be added to the list of victims of these kinds of accidents that could have been completely prevented with just an ounce of precaution. Let us not wait until it’s one of our own. Teacher Josie’s tragic death should not be in vain. It should be a wake-up call for us all—especially for those in power who can enforce change. No one should lose their life because a driver “didn’t see” them. The driver who ran over our teacher will also most likely end up in jail. This is a tragedy that cuts both ways: a tragic death and a bread-winner who is most likely going behind bars for something completely preventable.
Let this be the generation that looked beyond Mars and decided to fix what’s right in front of us—because sometimes, what’s just a meter away matters more than what’s millions of kilometers beyond our reach.
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Rafael “Raffy” Gutierrez is a veteran Technology Trainer with over 25 years of experience in networking, systems design, and diverse computer technologies.
