- GILBERT BAYORAN
The proposal to declare the national highway of E. B. Magalona as a traffic discipline zone (TDZ) has the support of road safety stakeholders.
Mayor Marvin Malacon presided over the second meeting with road safety stakeholders June 9, for the drafting of an ordinance declaring the national highway as a TDZ.
The town’s 12-kilometer highway stretches from its border in Silay City to its border in Victorias City.
Among the proposed measures in the ordinance are assigning Land Transportation Office (LTO)-deputized officers to apprehend traffic violators, increasing traffic violation fees, putting up of rumble strips in strategic areas and those leading to highway bends and school zones, deploying traffic law enforcers in densely-populated areas, like schools, to conduct traffic direction and control, and conducting massive information and education campaign in schools, and to motorists plying the highway daily.
The proposal stemmed from several fatal vehicular accidents in the area, the most recent of which was the May 13 accident that claimed the life of a 43-year-old father. In Dec. 15 last year, a Grade 10 student also died in an accident at the highway.
The declaration of the highway as a TDZ will allow the imposition of stricter traffic rules and added security measures to avoid further tragic road crashes, Malacon stressed./GB
