Candelaria Warnings and Dangers

Driving in the National Highway enroute Candelaria requires a lot of patience and defensive driving skills. You have to have a safe distance from public buses. I noticed that the Victory Liner makes sudden stops on the middle of the road (no, they won't bother pulling over to the shoulder) when passengers go down, or when new passengers are picked up.

We were 3 cars in a convoy; our car led the way. A Victory Liner suddenly stopped in the middle of the road when a passenger alit. Fortunately, we were some meters away so we were able to stop just in time...Then suddenly, we heard the sound of a car crashing into another vehicle. The car behind us, the 2nd car in our convoy was bumped by a Starex van which tried to overtake past our 3rd car. It didn't see a coming bus so it cut into our 3rd car (which gave way), hitting our 2nd car which stopped because we stopped when the Victory Liner stopped. What a chain reaction! The 2nd car, a new CRV was hit badly, causing it to move forward, and hit our fender. Luckily, our Fortuner's fender wasn't damaged. The car owner, a foreigner didn't go down the car; only his companion did. He tried to argue, but seeing the business card of our companion, he humbled himself and apologized, and promised to settle the damages.

A new danger warning during road accidents: NEVER leave your car windows and doors open if you have to go out and examine your car damage. In just a few minutes, so many people gathered around our cars, peeping into the windows. Why? Your guess is as good as mine... Just be cautious and conscious of everything and everyone when you are in a strange town.