Safety, design of metro skyway questioned

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MANILA, Philippines – Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III  is seeking an inquiry into the  safety of the  structure  and design of Metro Manila’s skyway, following a series  of vehicular accidents over the last  few months.

Pimentel said operators of the skyway are supposed to install adequate safety measures and strictly enforce traffic rules and regulations to protect the lives of motorists using the country’s elevated expressway.

“It is important to find out whether the skyway operator is properly enforcing traffic rules, speed limit and other regulations,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.

“However, given this many number of accidents, there is a need to ask the more difficult question of whether the design and structure of the Skyway itself is safe by international standards in the first place,” he said.

Pimentel then filed Senate Resolution No. 550, which calls on the Senate to look into the matter to ascertain why numerous vehicular accidents happened, claiming several lives and causing untold damages to properties over the last few months.

The investigation, he said, was timely because of a new plan to build the P26.5 billion elevated expressway that would connect the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) to the South Luzon Expressway (SLEx).

The senator said new measures are also needed to improve safety on roads, especially of the elevated road systems given the fact that there is already an existing skyway and plans to construct more are in the pipeline to solve Metro Manila’s worsening traffic gridlocks.

Pimentel then cited the latest case of a shuttle van for skyway employees that fell off the elevated expressway’s southbound lane last Sunday, injuring the driver and a passenger of a sports utility vehicle that hit the van.

The probe, he said, will also try to ascertain the need for new safety measures to be adopted to prevent a repeat of the incident and ensure that the structural integrity and design of the expressways are safe by international standards.

The biggest tragedy happened on Dec. 16, 2013 when a Don Mariano Transit bus fell off the southbound lane of the South Luzon Skyway, killing 18 passengers and hurting several others.

Other accidents involved an armored van that crushed four vehicles and killed one after falling off the skyway on Jan. 25, 2007 and a Dimple Star Transport Corp. bus that also fell off the elevated expressway on July 26, 2011, killing three people.

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