Pagdilao leads traffic management & road safety summit in CVL

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January 13, 2011--CALABARZON police director, Chief Superintendent Samuel D Pagdilao Jr. this morning led a multi-agency summit on traffic management and road safety in Camp Vicente Lim, Canlubang, Calamba City that aims to get their acts together to reduce deaths and vehicular accidents in Southern Tagalog region.

Among the agencies that participated in the summit were the PNP Regional Highway Patrol Group (HPG) 4-A, the Department of Public Works and Highways DPWH), Land Transportation Office (LTO), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), representatives from the South Luzon and STAR Tollways management and the Local Government Traffic Management Offices of CALABARZON.

Pagdilao said the summit was convened for the said agencies to discuss and adopt certain measures that will ensure the reduction of accidents and motorists death along major roads and national highways in Southern Tagalog Region.  Pagdilao earlier called for the convening of the traffic management and road safety summit following the fatal vehicular accident in Southern Tagalog Arterial Road (STAR) in Ibaan, Batangas that resulted in the death of seven members of a family last January 2, 2011.

During the summit, representatives of said agencies have approved unanimously the creation of an Inter-Agency Plan on traffic management and road safety and the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement between government agencies involved in traffic management and the STAR Infrastructure Development Corporation that will allow the PNP to establish an investigation office within the STAR Tollway and the South Luzon Expressway to speed-up the investigation of vehicular accidents.

It was agreed that aggressive enforcement of road and traffic rules must be the first and immediate measures towards keeping the road safe for drivers and commuters alike. The MOA also mulls allowing the PNP, the LTO and the LTFRB to operate and enforce road safety and other traffic laws and regulations within the two expressways in Southern Tagalog region especially against drunk and reckless drivers.  Records from HPG reveal that for the year 2010, 544 of the 1,078 vehicular accidents recorded in CALABARZON occurred in SLEX. The STAR Tollway has recorded three accidents including the one in Ibaan, Batangas last Sunday.  HPG records showed that the highest number of vehicular accidents in 2010 occurred in the month of September with 127, followed by November with 115, and March with 107 vehicular accidents.

HPG records also showed that for last year, 219 people were killed in vehicular accidents in CALABARZON. The most fatal month for motorists last year was in April where 27 people were killed in road accidents, followed by March with 22 people killed and December with 22 including the seven members of a family who died in STAR Tollway accident.  Sr. Superintendent Antonio Gardiola Jr. of the HPG Region 4-A said that the common cause of these accidents were gross disregard to traffic sign due to lack of education on the part of some drivers of public utility vehicles, gross disregard to road courtesy, and engineering defects of road networks.

It can be recalled that Pagdilao last week has directed the HPG in Region 4-A and all chiefs-of-police to initiate a random stop, board, and on-the-spot check on drunken drivers to prevent the repetition of the fatal accident in Ibaan, Batangas.