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[av_heading heading=’‘DON’T IGNORE SPEED LIMITS’ Ordinance not enforced a year since approval ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY MERIANNE GRACE EREÑETA
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ILOILO City – A fatal sports car accident on Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue late Saturday night prompted calls for the strict enforcement of the city’s ordinance limiting the speed of motor vehicles.
Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog said he will be meeting with the Transportation Management and Traffic Regulation Office (TMTRO).
“The speed limit ordinance must be enforced. Public safety is paramount,” said Mabilog in his radio program yesterday.
The passenger of the sports car Hyundai Genesis Coupe, 19-year-old Chester Lane Go of Arevalo district, died. According to witnesses, the car driven by 20-year-old John Trevor Galindez of Oton, Iloilo was running some 200 km per hour in Barangay Dungon B, Jaro district around 10 p.m.
The car crashed against the center island of the national highway, turned turtle to the other side of the road, then hit an Isuzu Sportivo.
The responding personnel of the Bureau of Fire Protection needed to cut the sports car’s roof to pull out Go who was stuck inside.
“Ulihi na ang paghinulsol (It was too late for regrets),” said Mabilog. The speed limit ordinance was clearly not followed, he added.
June last year, the Sangguniang Panlungsod approved Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-283 setting speed limits on all kinds of motor vehicles (private and public utility vehicles).
“I appeal to all drivers. Don’t drive recklessly,” said Mabilog.
Netizens took to social media to express support to Mabilog’s appeal. According to the 21-year-old Ma. Anne Medez, reckless driving could be observed even on the widened coastal road in Barangay San Isidro, La Paz district.
“Gapinagusto sila over-speeding. Ang mga truck tani nga 40 kph lang ang speed limit, matyag ko gaabot 60 kph,” she told Panay News.
The 21-year-old new college graduate Sajih Dolar, on the other hand, believed many drivers were unaware of Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-283.
The 24-year-old motorist Richard Franz Arrabis told Panay News taxi drivers were mostly the ones over-speeding.
“The other drivers do follow the speed limit ordinance. Besides, they cannot very fast due to traffic congestion in the city,” he said.
OK WITH DRIVERS
For transport groups in this city, speed limits are not a problem. According to Raymundo Parcon, president of the Iloilo City Loop Alliance of Jeepney Owners and Drivers Associations (ICLAJODA), “Most of the time, it’s the private vehicles that are overspeeding.”
ICLAJODA drivers observe the speed limits that Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-283 set, he stressed.
“The speed limit should be imposed on all types of vehicles be these public utilities or privately owned,” said Parcon.
The city council’s overriding concern in passing the ordinance was public safety, according to Councilor Joshua Alim, the proponent.
“We have no problem with speed limits but drivers should be given leeway on certain circumstances such as when they are transporting hospital-bound patients and during other life-threatening emergencies,” said Rodrigo Baculado, president of the North-South Baluarte Taxi Drivers Association and Dumper Philippines-Iloilo Chapter.
He also said speed limits will not affect taxi and jeepney services.
TOOTHLESS TMTRO
However, a year now since Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-283 was approved, the TMTRO still does not have the necessary equipment or technology – such as radar speed guns – to impose the speed limits and detect overspeeding vehicles.
A radar speed gun measures the speed of moving objects. It may be hand-held, vehicle-mounted or static.
It gauges the speed of the objects at which it is pointed by detecting a change in frequency of the returned radar signal caused by the Doppler effect, whereby the frequency of the returned signal is increased in proportion to the object’s speed of approach if the object is approaching, and lowered if the object is receding.
GO SLOW
Under Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-283, the maximum speed for automobiles and motorcycles from the corner of General Luna Street to Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue and up to Barangay Ungka, Jaro district is 60 kilometers per hour (kph). For trucks and buses, the speed limit is 50 kph.
On roads from Barangay Sambag, Jaro to Central Philippine University, Jaro Plaza, Iloilo provincial capitol, and General Luna to Barangay Mohon in Arevalo district, the speed limit for automobiles and motorcycles is 40 kph. For trucks and buses, it is 30 kph.
It is 40 kph maximum for automobiles and motorcycles that pass JM Basa Street going to Fort San Pedro, while it is 30 kph for trucks and buses.
Within the City Proper, the maximum allowable speed for automobiles and motorcycles is 40 kph. For trucks and buses, it is 30 kph.
On the circumferential, radial and coastal roads, the speed limit for automobiles and motorcycles is 60 kph while for trucks and buses, 40 kph.
The admissible speed limit for automobiles and motorcycles in all other local or national roads, streets and highways here is 30 kph. For trucks and buses, it is 20 kph.
Outside the city, said Baculado, taxis follow the international speed limit of 80 kph.
FINES
The city council identified the TMTRO as the primary city government arm to enforce Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-283.
TMTRO also was tasked to put up speed limit signs around the city.
Councilor Alim, however, said the speed limits are not applied during emergencies and law enforcement operations.
The penalties for violating the ordinance are:
* P200 fine and/or imprisonment of one day minimum to two months maximum for the first violation
* P500 fine and/or two months and one day minimum to four months maximum in prison for the second violation, and
* P1,000 fine and/or imprisonment of four months and one day minimum to six months maximum for the third and succeeding violations./PN
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