Better roads are safer roads

Title

Creator

Florencio Moreno

Language

English

Source

Panorama X (10) October 1958

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

Our highway planners have geared their thinking and vision to the designing of roads to reduce traffic accidents ^Better IBoads Jdre Safer IZoads By FLORENCIO MORENO Secretary, Public Works and Communications ecently, metro politan newspapers carried glar ing headlines about the head-on collision on Highway 54 of an automobile driven by a U.P. professor and one driven by a P.C. officer, resulting in the instantaneous death of the professor and serious injuries to four others. This accident is almost a daily occurrence on our highways. The accident re ports from traffic enforcement agencies all over the country that trickle into our Office in dicate that our fatality rate of 15.5 persons per one hundred million vehicle kilometers of travel has not diminished. In 1952, traffic accidents took a toll of 378 human lives and incapacitated or injured 3,893 persons in 5,605 accidents of all types. This trend from 1952 up to 1956 showed an increase in the number of accidents of about P/2 times with a slight increase in fatalities and inju ries. During 1956, 457 died; 1,148 were seriously injured and 4,490 were slightly injured. This means that ten Filipinos daily sustain injury in traffic acci dents and that three persons die every two days all over the country from the same causes. Compared to progressive na tions in the world, particularly the United States, where the fa tality rate is only from 2.2 to 4 per cent of every one hundred million vehicle miles on their 34 Panorama freeways and from 6 to 12 per cent of every one hundred mil lion vehicle miles on their state and rural highways, our fatality rate is fearfully high. This is a very bad condition that the government — the Motor Vehi cles Office, the Bureau of Pub lic Highways, the TRAFCON unit of the Philippine Consta bulary and local traffic officers — should share in the responsi bility of reducing the toll in human lives and in the loss of millions of pesos paid in pro perty damage and insurance. We cannot be complacent in the face of this utter waste. T would like to point out the three primary “E’s” in traf fic safety. These are Education, Engineering and Enforcement. Education means instructing the driver, pedestrian, and the general public on traffic laws, codes, rules and regulations, along with' the widespread dis semination of traffic safety in formation that will materially help in minimizing traffic acci dents and in re-awakening the motorists to a conscientious ob servance of the rules of the road. Driver education may start in the schools or through actual experience but it behooves the driver-licensing agency to place, apply more strictly the accepted methods of examination before any new driver is given the authority to sit behind a steering wheel. The written, physical and ac tual driving examination should be thorough and comprehensive. And there should be no lenien cy in denying the privilege of driving to those who are phys ically, morally and mentally un fit because to do otherwise is to endanger human lives and forfeit valuable property. If we are appalled at. an airplane crash, we can no less be horri fied by daily tragedies on our highways. The engineering phase of traffic safety concerns the in corporation into highway plan ning such features of design and construction that would minimize, if not actually pre vent, traffic accidents. The Bu reau of Public Highways is working along progressive lines, incorporating into road designs such features as ex tended no-passing lanes, divided highways that preclude head-on collisions, grade separators at intersections, speed zone indi cators, uniform signs and sig nals to reduce intersection dif ficulties, wide shoulders to pro vide safe refuge for disabled vehicles, marked cross-walks for pedestrians, channelizations, and many other improved en gineering devices. Our highway planners have geared their thinking and vi sion to the planning of such highways that will contribute immensely to reduction of traf fic accidents. They now propose October 1958 35 to make studies of the eventual construction of modern con trolled access roads in our high way system, possibly to give priority to those portions which have a heavy volume of traffic. But on less important roads they propose to apply the same plan, with the eventual incor poration of those operating fea tures of the. controlled access type of highway. Which means that both as a national project and as regional public works, our road construction program is geared to new and progres sive planning. In this impartial way, we in the department of public works and communications will aim eventually at relieving traffic congestion everywhere, whether in a short section of the Manila North Road from the Balintawak Monument to Tabang, Bulacan, as a modest beginning, or in a scale bigger than that. The present project is not a super-colossal job, by the way, as may have been misrepresent ed through over - glamourized newspaper reports, because we do not intend to construct right now the whole 168-kilometer diversionary route from Manila to Pangasinan. Our section of this road, consisting of only about 25 kilometers, because there is no other road in the whole country with its main trunk route as heavily congest ed as this particular section of the Manila-North Road. If other roads in the national system, be it in the Visayas or Mindanao or on any other is land, or region, should need this or other type of improved high way, our highway planners who are constantly appraising sta tistics of our road needs, would certainly design similar or ap proximately similar types of highway. And because this is, as I emphasized, only a modest beginning, no region or prov ince or island need therefore be sacrificed when it comes to al location of national funds. CT he last E of traffiic safety promotion is enforcement, and it is here that police traffic enforcement comes into play. Without the last E, the two other E’s are neutralized. We may have all the laws, rules and regulations governing the use of the road, driver behavior and the movement and control of traffic, but without rigid and judicious enforcement of these rules and regulations, our ef forts would be negative. On this score, let me relate a very interesting experience of some engineers, the driver of whose car was apprehended by a TRAFCON patrol of the Phil ippine Constabulary on the Ma nila-North Road. The officer po litely waved them to a stop and in the most courteous way said: "Sorry, gentlemen, but please understand that your driver is endangering your lives; I am 36 Panorama apprehending him because he was overtaking at an unneces sarily high speed on a non-pass ing zone.” If the engineers in the car had ever the faintest notion of interceding on behalf of their driver, this approach changed their minds because the TRAFCON officer was not only con vincing but reasonable, which is a far cry from the ordinary run of police officials. This is one of the many facets of traffic enforcement that properly strengthens the policing of our highways. The TRAFCON unit of the Philippine Constabulary and many local traffic officials should be commended for their efficient and knowledgeable en forcement and control of traf fic laws on our highways. There should be no relaxation of ef forts. On the other hand, it is sad to note that there are a few police' officers who appear easy prey to venality. What we need is an organization of more dy namic force, composed of dedi cated police officers with a high sense of duty, civic conscious ness and selflessness. There are other traffic prob lems worthy of study, specially among urban and suburban po lice traffic divisions. I refer par ticularly to the conditions in Manila which are interlaced with the problems of nearby suburban areas. The traffic prob lems of Manila have become their problems too. The traffic difficulties in urban Manila are. reflected in the type and volume of transportation used by suburbanites, in the pursuit ot business and in their private motoring. There is need there fore to integrate police func tions among areas of heavy traffic activity that overlap cer tain jurisdictions. The respon sibility of traffic police can no longer be limited by bounda ries. J n the concerted effort to cre1 ate ideal conditions on our roads and minimize the daily toll of human lives from traf fic accidents, there should be uniformity in the interpretation of the rules of the road and more cooperation with the Pub lic Service Commission, the Mo * tor Vehicles Office, the TRAF CON a.nd the Bureau of Pub lic Highways. To achieve better coordina tion, more and serious training of police recruits is needed. The uniformity and regularity of maintaining and forwarding to a central agency traffic accident reports will come in handy, too. If a person is sick, he can only be cured if there is a proper diagnosis. In the case of traf fic analysis, experts in my de partment are hampered in their search for corrective measures by the incomplete and often in correct data furnished us, or October 1958 37 sometimes the total lack of data. While the Motor Vehicles Of fice has a compilation of traf fic accidents, I am not too sure that all accidents investigated by local traffic officers are pro perly reported and properly compiled, such that they will be of value to our traffic ana lysts. All local police officers should therefore make their re ports carefully and transmit them as regularly as possible. And we shall do our part in correcting the physical and geo metric deficiencies of our high ways to the end that we will have highways that will give the motoring public a guaran tee that the road they travel is safe, that as long as they do their part in observing traffic safety, they need never gamble with their lives. Lonely Cats In Los Angeles, Matt Weinstock tells about a lady who loves cats who was dining with her hus band in her apartment one night when she fancied she heard a cat meowing a floor or two away. “I’ll bet that pussy is lonely,” she remarked to her hus band, and playfully meowed back. To her surprise the cat answered her! She re peated her meow, this time putting extra feeling into her performance, and there then ensued the darnedest cat conversation ever heard in that neighborhood. It continued for a full half hour, while the husband marveled. The next day her triumph was deflated when a neighbor dropped down to borrow some sugar. “The funniest thing happened last night,” said the neigh bor. “I meowed at a cat and he moewed back — and we must have kept it up for forty minutes!" * 38 Panorama

pages

34-38

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