Stick to the yellow lanes or else, MMDA warns bus drivers on Edsa

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Francis Tolentino has reminded drivers of passenger buses to limit themselves to the yellow lane on Edsa as he warned that the agency’s traffic enforcers would strictly enforce the regulation in the coming weeks after yet another accident involving a bus claimed two lives Sunday morning.

Two men were killed in a three-vehicle smashup on the northbound lane of the Edsa-Shaw Boulevard underpass when the silver Toyota FX they were riding in was rear-ended by a sport utility vehicle (SUV).

The crash sent the victims’ vehicles into the opposite lane and onto the path of an oncoming Bataan Transit bus.

The accident killed the driver of the FX, Emmanuel Tolentino, an employee of Safecon Enterprise, and his passenger, soldier Jose Porlaje Jr.

Both were both declared dead on arrival at Mandaluyong Medical Center.

The drivers of the SUV, Daniel Joseph Pineda, and the Bataan Transit bus, Rudy Tibayan, were taken into custody pending the filing of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide at the prosecutor’s office against them.

“The incident is proof that buses should not be passing through the tunnel,” Tolentino said in a radio interview. “In the past, there were not a lot of cars that’s why their request could be accommodated, but now, it’s a different scenario.”

He said the MMDA revived the “yellow plates on yellow lane” policy last Friday after

an accident left two motorcycle riders wounded when a bus traveling outside the yellow lane crashed into their vehicle.

According to MMDA law department chief Rochelle Ona, the policy was covered by a Metro Manila Council resolution passed in 1997.

Tolentino said that Sunday’s accident should help bus drivers understand why they cannot use the underpasses. He said the MMDA encountered difficulty in towing and removing the bus because of the limited space inside the underpass.