Calling the DPWH for empathy
There is this video clip and a handful of photos posted on Facebook that were taken during heavy rains at Mexico town. The posted materials show two cars whose wheels were stuck in a foot-deep, several meters long canal in between a newly-concreted road and an old concrete road.
The canal is a result of the pending road construction the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) which started even prior to summer and was left pending now that we are on the rainy season.
As it appears on the post, that portion of the Gapan-San Fernando-Olongapo road is under re-concreting which unfortunately was a project that is left hanging and still to be completed.
Since it was a rainy night and the place of the incident seems to be unlighted, the two cars got stuck and nearly met a more horrible accident if not for the help of barangay officials and a good Samaritan, a public utility jeepney driver plying the Arayat- San Fernando route who helped the owners of the stuck vehicles.
The said road re-concreting project, which I discussed recently in this column, has neither warning signage nor warning lights to caution motorists of the “manmade canal” in the middle of the newly-concreted road and the old one.
One of the owners of the two cars captured the incident on video and mobile phone photography and posted the same on Facebook, along with his plea to the government for immediate action on the road construction project that poses great danger to motorists and pedestrians as well.
In her plea is her statement that the government should not wait for someone to die before government authorities would act on such. It’s a usual call addressed to the government for some projects that were left pending while the people either suffer from them or exposed to accidents due to their pendent.
Last year, a road re-concreting project which was left pending, claimed the lives of two persons in their motorcycle when an uneven road sans warning signs, made their two-wheeled vehicle fall on its side.
Aside from road accidents that are waiting to happen, hundreds if not thousands of passing vehicles suffer damage on their suspension parts because of the poor conditions of the roads that need immediate attention.
Government authorities, particularly those in charge with road constructions, should exercise empathy so they can feel what the motoring and the commuting public feel. They also need to experience heavy traffic, bumpy rides, damaged vehicles and exposure to imminent road dangers in order perhaps to give immediate attention to the pending road constructions like those in the said town.
Perhaps a miracle can solve the woes of motorists who are calling for mercy from government people mandated to serve the public.
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