ILOILO City – Today a team from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Region 6 will start assessing an accident-prone spot of the highway in Barangay Igbucagay, Hamtic, Antique.
Assistant Regional Director Al Fruto described the area – where similar types of road accidents have occurred – as a “black spot.”
Friday night last week, a Vallacar Transit, Inc. Ceres bus fell into a 30-meter deep ravine from that spot of the highway, killing three people and injuring seven others. Last year on the same spot, three motor vehicles had similar fates, killing 30.
According to Fruto, the area had sufficient road safety signs and roadside barriers.
Antique’s Gov. Rhodora Cadiao had suggested that the accident-prone steep road in mountainous Barangay Igbucagay needed a better engineering design.
DPWH-6 would act based on the result of the assessment, said Fruto yesterday, but he already hinted that “physical intervention” may be introduced.
Fruto also said the regional office may be tapping experts from DPWH’s central office, specifically from the Bureau of Quality and Safety which is in charge of the formulation and implementation of policies for the purpose of ensuring the safety of all infrastructure facilities and securing the highest efficiency and quality in construction through checking of compliance with approved plans and specifications.
The bureau is also responsible for the establishment of traffic engineering policies, analysis and evaluation of accident data, including average daily traffic and weighbridge data.
While waiting for the outcome of the assessment, however, the DPWH-Antique District Engineering Office already started puttng rumble strips on the highway a few meters before and after the accident-prone spot of the highway.
Rumble strips, also known as alert strips, are a road safety feature to alert inattentive drivers of potential danger by causing a tactile vibration and audible rumbling transmitted through the wheels into the vehicle interior.
A rumble strip is applied along the direction of travel following an edgeline or centerline to alert drivers when they drift from their lane.
Rumble strips may also be installed in a series across the direction of travel, to warn drivers of a stop or slowdown ahead, or of an approaching danger spot.
Citing available accident data, Fruto noted that most of the vehicular accidents in that area of the highway transpired more or less the same hours (late at night) and were due to mechanical problems of the vehicles like defective brakes, among others.
On April 7, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board suspended for 30 days the operation of 10 Ceres buses of Vallacar Transit, Inc. plying the route Iloilo City (Molo Terminal) to Caticlan, Malay, Aklan (via San Jose, Antique) and vice versa.
Vallacar Transit, Inc. was ordered to surrender the buses’ yellow license plates to LTFRB Region 6./PN
