TUBA, Benguet – Road crashes along major roads in the municipality continues to be on the rise amidst efforts of concerned government agencies and the local government to instill road safety awareness among motorists.
Chief Inspector James Acod, chief of the Tuba Municipal Police Station, revealed that from January to November this year, there were a total of 254 road crashes that were recorded by the local police force along various roads in the locality compared to the 207 road rashes documented during the same period last year.
Acod claimed that more than 60 percent of the road crashes could be attributed to human error while the remaining close to 40 percent of the said incidents were caused by mechanical trouble of the motor vehicles. Of the total number of road crashes this year, 183 incidents are said to be due to human error compared to the 133 incidents last year. Mechanical accounts for only 29 incidents this year compared to the 57 cases last year while road condition caused 42 crashes this year compared to the only 17 incidents last year.
“Sixty percent of those involved in the road crashes in the locality are visitors because of their being new to the condition of our mountain roads, thus, we advise motorists plying major roads to drive defensively to avoid the occurrence of incidents that will compromise the safety of life and limb,” Acod stressed.
Tuba is traversed by 4 national roads, particularly the scenic and historic Kennon road, Marcos highway, Naguilian road and the newly opened Baguio-Asin-Aringay-Tubao road.
The police official revealed that there were 159 road crashes this year that resulted to damage to property compared to the 119 cases during the same period last year while there were 87 crashes this year that resulted to physical injuries compared to the 83 crashes during the same period last year.
According to him, there were 9 road crashes this year that resulted to the death of motorists compared to the only 5 crashes that happened during the same period last year.
Acod pointed out appropriate coordinations are being done with the public works department for the installation of sufficient road safety signages along strategic sections of national roads to serve as constant reminders to motorists to observe safety when travelling along mountain roads, especially when they are not familiar with the prevailing condition of the roads leading to Baguio City and other parts of the Cordillera region.
From 2014 to 2018, Acod reported a constant increase in the number of deaths due to road crashes wherein there were 4 deaths in 2014, 5 accident-related deaths in 2015, 7 deaths in 2016, before it dropped to 5 deaths last year and again increased to 9 deaths for the first eleven months of the year.
Among the vehicles involved in the road crashes this year include trucks with 62 followed by motorcycles with 41, cars and vans – 39 each, wagons – 38, buses – 15, taxis – 6, unidentified vehicles and jeepneys – 5 each and tricycles – 4.
He said law enforcers have been deployed along strategic portions of national roads to provide warnings to motorists for them to observe traffic signages that will guide them through their travel to and from their desired destinations safely.
By HENT