5 dead in QC road crash; calls for road safety measures mount
The driver of the trailer truck loaded with steel beams that triggerred a nine-vehicle pile-up and resulted in the death of at least five people in Quezon City (QC) Thursday afternoon will be charged with reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide, multiple physical injuries, and damage to properties.
Chief Inspector Roldan Sarmiento, chief of the Quezon City Police District Traffic Sector 5, the driver of the 22-wheeler trailer truck, Nilo Calimutan, turned himself in shortly after the mishap.
Sarmiento said that Calimutans truck was cruising along San Mateo road from IBP Road towards Marikina City when it allegedly lost its brakes upon reaching corner Sto. Niño Street.
The truck rear-ended a Toyota Avanza driven by Noel Dela Rosa, 39, which triggered the deadly mulit-vehicle smashup.
Killed in the mishap were SFO2 Enrique Faigane, Ludivina Baluyot, Nida Gersalia, Edward Herbas and Lady Christy Pullido. Speed Limiters Law In a related development, Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito stressed the urgency of implementing the Speed Limiters Act, which could have prevented such fatal road mishaps.
"Speed Limiters Law has to be implemented ASAP to prevent further loss of lives due to reckless driving and overspeeding," Ejercito, vice chair of the Senate committee on public services, said in a Twitter post, while calling the attention of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) and the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
The two agencies were supposed to implement the Republic Act 10916 or the “Road Speed Limiter Act” of 2016, which lapsed into law July 16 last year.
The DOTr, however, has yet to release its implementing rules and regulations (IRR).
"Implementation and enforcement has been very slow. We could have saved more lives had the implementation been done already. Tragic accidents are really depressing," Ejercito added.
Under RA 10916, all public utility vehicles (PUVs), including cargo trailers and tanker trucks, are required to install devices designed to limit their maximum speeds.
It also supposedly makes speed limiter a prerequisite for registration at the LTO and for new franchises at the Land Transportation Franchisng and Regulatory Board.
Transpo safety board Muntinlupa City Rep. Ruffy Biazon said it is high time for Congress to prioritize the bill proposing the creation of a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) which he originally filed during the 12th Congress.
House Bill 1725 seeks to create the NTSB with the primary duty to conduct investigations on air, overland and maritime transportation accidents and determine the facts, conditions, circumstances and causes of accident.