By Nanette Guadalquiver
BACOLOD CITY – Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Assistant Secretary Vigor Mendoza II has underscored the need for strict adherence to road safety and traffic rules in the wake of major vehicular accidents that claimed lives and injured people, including those in Western Visayas during the Holy Week.
“Change the ways, promote road safety. Let’s protect our commuters,” Mendoza said in an interview on the sidelines of the visit of Department of Transportation officials here on Friday.
He underscored the LTO’s action of suspending 671 drivers for various reasons and issuing 1,100 show-cause orders involving road unworthiness of vehicles.
“That signals very clear, we will be strict about it,” he added.
Among the 671 involved drivers, 574 were suspended because of “road crash incidents resulting in slight physical injuries or death,” while 97 tested positive for drugs.
In Western Visayas, Regional Director Gaudioso Geduspan II said they had sought the revocation of the driver’s license of Indian national Jagpreet Singh, who was involved in a fatal road crash during a Good Friday procession in Barangay Alangilan, Bacolod City.
The red Toyota Innova driven by Singh rammed into a tricycle, hitting other vehicles, including a police patrol car, and killing three devotees and injuring 17 others.
Show-cause orders were also issued against a driver and a jeepney operator in Iloilo for various violations committed during the Holy Week.
Meanwhile, Mendoza said they have started setting up the LTO regional office in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental.
On the start of the operation, Mendoza said they will “take the cue from the DOTr, the mother agency.”
“We will give a report after this, for the LTO to implement the law on NIR (Negros Island Region),” he added.
Mendoza said they will also set up an office in this highly-urbanized city “given that the volume of transactions is still in Bacolod.” (PNA)
