FUN RUN – NOT SO FUN

A FUN RUN early Sunday morning (Feb. 4) was being blamed by some netizens for the fatal 4 a.m. vehicular accident involving a car and a jeepney on the Diversion Road (Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue) in Mandurriao, Iloilo City. It was a headon collision. The car was reduced to a mangled piece of metal. Its driver died.

According to netizens and motorists, traffic was poorly managed for the fun run. There was no extensive prior public information dissemination kuno that one side of the Diversion Road would be closed to traffic while the other side would be temporarily made into a two-way street.

As a result, many motorists got confused as early as 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. of Saturday (Feb. 3) when the road closure was effected hours before Sunday’s fun run.

“Nag gilinumon sa Diversion kay gin close. Tapos ang other side nag two-way na. Kibot ka na lang may ga- counterflow,” according to one pissed off netizen. Dangerous, indeed!

Worse, there were not enough traffic officers kuno to guide vehicles. There weren’t enough road signs, too.

And the scant traffic officers on duty indi man kuno mapuslan kun pamangkoton. According to one motorist, “I was advised nga sa Carlos area maliko. Then another enforcer said nga sa Taft North. Te didto na ko gani halin. And he refused to even just radio some of his colleagues to confirm which alternative routes are available. Kagamo sa ila.”

Paging the Iloilo City Traffic Management Unit people. Were you sleeping on your job? Or basi gasalig kamo sa Public Safety and Transportation Management Office?

Say mo, Sir Jeck?