Vehicle mishaps on both Mactan bridges cause traffic gridlock

Traffic gridlock was experiened in Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu cities yesterday due to vehicular accidents in the two bridges connecting both cities.

A wayward truck slid backward and got its rear axle stuck in the railing of the Marcelo Fernan Bridge.

Traffic on both ends of the bridge was snarled from 11 a.m. to about 3 p.m.

Earlier at 10:30 a.m. an armored car bumped an automobile at the foot of the old Mandaue-Mactan bridge in A.C. Cortes Avenue in barangay Looc, Mandaue City.

The road was cleared by 12:30 p.m.

In the Marcelo Fernan Bridge accident, truck driver Noel Ulbinario said he was going up the bridge to Lapu-Lapu City with 10 tons of coconut lumber when the engine lost power and teh brakes failed.

The truck skidded backward.

To avoid hitting other vehicles, Ulbinario maneuvered his truck to the side of the bridge. Its rear axle got stuck in the railings. The main truck body blocked one lane of the bridge.

Upon impact, the cargo go coco lumber fell on the road.

“I decided to ditch the rear of the truck to the railings so I won’t hit other vehicles behind me,” Ulbinario said in Cebuano.

The truck was about to deliver the lumber to a hardware store in Lapu-Lapu City from Pier 2 in Cebu City.

The coco lumber arrived at 11 a.m. from Dipolog City.

If the steel railing of the bridge were not strong, the truck would have fallen into the sea, said a traffic enforcer.

Minutes later, other trucks of the Ondo trucking Company arrived and the lumber was transferred for delivery to continue to its destination.

Because of ongoing road repairs in UN Avenue at the foot of the bridge in Mandaue City, it took some time to clear the debris on the road.

Traffic was tied up all the way to the North Cebu Highway, way past noon.

For most of the afternoon, only one lane was open for vehicles from Mandaue going to Lapu-Lapu City.

No one was reported injured.

Only the railing of the Fernan bridge was damaged.

In the accident on the old Mandaue-Mactan bridge, a Honda Hatchback encroached the inner lane and was sideswiped by the armored car of Safeguard Armored Security Corp., said traffic investigator SPO4 Eleazar Saromines.

This stalled traffic for two hours in the lane towards Lapu-Lapu.