Public transportation
or public menace?

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

At around 5 a.m. yesterday morning a Don Mariano Transit Corp. bus with plate number UVC 916 flew off the elevated part of the Skyway in Paranaque City and plunged into the west service road of the southbound lane of the South Luzon Expressway. The falling bus crushed an aluminum van and killed  22 people. Approximately two hours later, a Ceres Bus Liner that turned sideways in the town of Badian in Cebu, resulted in the deaths of two people: the driver’s wife and daughter who were seated in the front seat of the bus.

The morning before that, at least 55 people were injured when two Victory Liner buses collided in Olongapo City. One bus was overtaking a vehicle when it collided head-on with the approaching bus on the opposite lane.

Despite the high death toll, and a spotty safety record that includes a Don Mariano bus ramming the railings of the EDSA-Ortigas flyover on July 4, 2012 that left at least  five wounded and having been involved in at least two accidents this year, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board has suspended all the buses of the Don Mariano Transit Corp. for only 30 days.  All its buses will undergo road worthiness inspections and its bus drivers will be retrained. The LTFRB has also ordered the driver of the ill-fated bus that killed 22 people to be subjected to drug and alcohol testing.

Bus companies may provide an essential public service, but faced with a safety and discipline record that is far from stellar, it is becoming pretty clear that the LTFRB needs to do a better job in ensuring the safety of the public. If the best that the government can do to prevent another deadly bus accident from happening is to slap a 30-day suspension on a bus company for killing  22 people in one fell swoop, then we should not be surprised to hear of more deadly accidents in the future.

Aside from a professional driver’s license that is not even difficult to acquire, does the government have standards or certification programs for drivers of public utility drivers, considering the number of lives they are responsible for every time they get behind the wheel? Are there even government-mandated and enforced performance and maintenance standards for public utility vehicles? Or does the LTFRB spring into action only when a certain number of people are killed by public transportation?

Will the commuters, motorists, and pedestrians of this country be safer after the 30-day suspension of Don Mariano Transit Corp. ends, or will things be back to the way they were?*