Iloilo cracks down on speedsters

An officer from the Davao City Traffic Management Center trains his speed gun on vehicles. Soon, traffic enforcers in Iloilo City will also use speed guns to crackdown on motorists who overspeed. INQUIRER FILE / KARLOS MANLUPIG

ILOILO CITY — Speed guns will soon be used in this traditionally laid-back city to help curb an increasing number of road accidents blamed on speeding.

Starting June 1, traffic enforcers with speed guns will be deployed along key streets in the city to implement a speed limit ordinance passed in 2015.

Lawyer Hernando Galvez, city administrator, said 20 recently procured speed guns will be distributed among teams of city traffic enforcers and policemen to monitor speed limits mandated by Regulation Ordinance 2015-283.

The focus of the monitoring will be the Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue (Iloilo Diversion Road) and the circumferential and radial roads where many fatal road accidents have happened.

The Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue is a main road stretching 15.6 kilometers from General Luna Street in Iloilo City to the Iloilo International Airport in Cabatuan town.

A portion of the avenue, the Iloilo-Jaro Diversion road, spans 5.84 kilometers with eight lanes aside from bicycle and pedestrian lanes.

The maximum speed for automobiles and motorcycles along the Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue is 60 kilometers per hour (kph) and 50 kph for buses and trucks.

Other main streets in the city have speed limits of 40 kph for automobiles and motorcycles and 30 kph for trucks and buses.

The license of violators will be confiscated and offenders will face a P200 fine and/or detention of one day to two months for the first offense; P500 fine and/or detention of two months to four months for the second offense; and P1,000 fine and/or imprisonment of four months to six months for the third offense.

Exempted from the speed limit are physicians and ambulance drivers responding to emergencies, law enforcers in pursuit of offenders, drivers transporting the sick or wounded for emergency treatment, military vehicles used in times of riot, insurrection or invasion; and fire trucks responding to a fire call.

For security reasons, national government officials and other dignitaries are also exempted, according to the ordinance.

Galvez said roads used for drag racing would also be monitored.

Observing speed limits have become a concern after the completion of road projects that have transformed two-lane roads to six or eight lanes amid the construction boom in Iloilo. CBB/rga