At the bottom of a ravine

I will put the choices very simply for you.

You’re riding a bus from Baguio to Sagada. You notice that the driver is a brash young boy, most probably inexperienced, perhaps even a college brat out for kicks. The bus already had a few heart-stopping near-accidents just out of Sayangan, then in Buguias, then again in Sinto and after Mt. Data–all because of the amateurish driver’s carelessness.

IRAIA thoughts
IRAIA thoughts

Then, as the bus negotiates the steep trail to Sabangan, it happens. The driver goes into a hairpin turn, barely manages it, finds out the brakes are no longer working, careens inches away from a ravine, and is finally stopped–only through sheer luck–by a short upslope road grade.

The driver insists that the bus can still make it to Sagada, or at least to the Dantay junction. But most passengers want to get down, catch their breaths, hopefully flag down the next bus, perhaps even walk to the next junction where they can hire a jeepney instead.

It’s not an easy decision to make, because the journey has still a long way to go, it might rain anytime, and a few passengers didn’t want to leave their warm seats.

And then there’s this weird passenger who says: We must keep our trust in the driver, our trust in the bus, our trust in God above. “We must not further destabilize the situation,” he says. “You want to ride the next bus? Why, the driver of that bus is MUCH WORSE, I’m telling you now. Better stick to this bus to the very end.”

Even if that very end is the bottom of a ravine.

You’d think people should have a required minimum level of sanity to ride or especially to drive buses. It turns out there are some passengers who would love to join the mad driver plunge his God-forsaken bus to the bottom of the ravine.

How about you? What would you do in this situation? I know what I’d do. #

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