Cebu City Traffic Office seeks to sketch road incidents again

THE Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) wants to get back its role in sketching road traffic incidents in Cebu City.

Retired P/Lt. Col. Andres Bayarcal, CCTO operations chief, said when the task to sketch a vehicular collision went back to the traffic police unit, he noticed a traffic jam would happen as it would take time for investigators to arrive in the area.

Bayarcal understands this situation as the Cebu City Police

Office (CCPO) lacks personnel in its traffic unit.

He plans that the CCTO would be the one to sketch a vehicular incident, but the investigation aspect would still be conducted by the traffic police unit.

The CCTO personnel are spread out in major thoroughfares in the city and they can respond right away if there are vehicular incidents. They can do the sketch and pull out the vehicles off the road to prevent a traffic jam, said Bayarcal.

The CCTO head will endorse his plan to the City Council through Councilor Phillip Zafra.

A minor road incident, said Bayarcal, would often lead to heavy traffic as the roads are not wide enough for different types of vehicles.

Bayarcal said the CCTO wants to pull off the vehicles involved in road incidents in a short amount of time so as not to affect the traffic flow.

For his part, CCPO officer-in-charge P/Col. Giovanie Maines said he still has to discuss Bayarcal’s suggestion with the traffic investigators and legal officer.

Maines feared that a CCTO sketch would not be admitted in court as evidence. Under the law, authorized personnel, including police officers, should be the ones investigating a road crash incident.

During the time of then CCPO director Royina Garma, the CCTO were not allowed to investigate traffic incidents.

If the CCPO and the City would allow the CCTO to investigate, the traffic enforcers would undergo training on sketching.

In Talisay City, Cebu, a proposed ordinance was filed seeking to require motorists to mark their vehicles if they are involved in minor traffic incidents.

The measure also states that the drivers must carry chalk, crayons and other marking devices. They must also picture their vehicles before pulling them out of the road.

The proposed ordinance seeks to prevent traffic jams caused by minor road incidents.