Speeding and bad road structure

Yahoo: CCTV shows Don Mariano Transit speeding before tragedy

From yahoo.com, a video shows that the killer bus owned by the Don Mariano Transit that took 18 lives of its passengers was on a speeding frenzy prior to the accident, the report says.

The authorities reviewing the video say the bus was running at more than 100 kilometers per hour while at the point of the accident the speed limit was only 80 kilometers per hour.

Bad road design and structure in RP

A comment by "A Yahoo User" on the video sourced from ANC, says thus:

if one where to look closely at the footage, one can see that there was water in the path of the bus. What does this mean? I believe that the swerving may be the cause of hydroplaning.that and the speed of the bus i believe could be the main causes of the bus falling

By design, the coupling of speeding vehicles and bad road designs and structures that are common in poor or developing countries are a mortal combination. Compounded with dilapidated vehicle features and parts - that as claimed by the Skyway administration was evident in the Don Mariano Transit bus unit's totally bald tires with treads wholly worn away - the accident was bound to happen.

In the face of burgeoning mishaps not only in the Metro Manila but in other areas of the country due to accidents like the Don Mariano Transit bus' plunge into the netherworld, government must be concerned not only with the implementation of laws, rules and regulations similar to the Congress-Senate approved National Transportation Safety Board Act but also the strictness of parameters for approving and performance-assessing the quality of the country's road network.

As our advocacy has pointed out in the past, in Tokyo, Japan, it was observed that a speeding car in a heavy downpour of rain at night, in a toll bridge, appeared to be travelling on almost dry road that was clear even to the average eye aided by vehicle lights. This is reportedly due to the fact that the structure of Tokyo's roads is characterized by multiple layers.

What is seen at the surface is only the topmost layer of the road structure. Beneath that top layer are sub-layers that are punctured with holes that gradually increase in size as the layer goes father down. At the bottom-most part of these layers water is presumably collected and diverted into pipes that go directly to storm drains.

Privatizing road network construction

Jailing bad regulators

In the Philippines, to build this kind of road would almost be an impossibility, unless road construction, like in Japan, is mostly given over to private companies who then in turn will just collect tolls from the users to be able to recover their investments.

If government officials stand to earn so much from skim in public sector initiated construction or building 'by administration', and keep making roads that are not safe, the next generations will then just have to suffer the result of this generation's callous, ruthless and cold-blooded theft of needed public money for their personal aggrandizement.

Further, if the regulatory officials keep issuing franchises and licenses to undeserving public conveyance stake holders, in the future, the children and grandchildren of this generation should be prepared to be confronted by a predominant race of Mad Max characters indiscriminately killing with impunity and wanton in the streets.

There is hope. There is hope that the officials that decide on road construction and the grant of licenses and franchises of today, will spawn their own descendants who will also be victims of drivers of the buses and owners of inhuman transport companies like the Don Mariano Transit.