EDITORIAL - Road safety

Many of the major road accidents in Cebu that happened in the last five years happened in the Cebu City to Toledo City road via Uling. Yet the road itself, to those who have experienced it, can attest to the fact that it is not as dangerous as the Cebu Transcentral Highway.

Of course, the Cebu Transcentral Highway which connects Cebu City to Balamban has had its share of major accidents. But this sort of comes as expected because it is a very dangerous road -- very steep grades, deep embankments, fog-prone, and loose hillsides given to landslides.

So why is the Cebu City to Toledo City road via Uling getting more than its share of accidents when it is a relatively less dangerous road than the Cebu Transcentral Highway? Maybe it is because the authorities are looking for answers in the wrong places.

In case you have not noticed, whenever an accident happens, the investigation promptly focuses on the driver and the condition of the vehicle. Not that this should not be the case, but it should not be the only case.

Focusing on the driver and the vehicle often results only in the cancellation of licenses and franchises and the payment of fines. What happens in such a situation is that we wait for the next accident to happen again.

What is being omitted in the official action that follows such accidents is a review of the road conditions where the accident happened. And by road conditions, it is not meant the physical condition of the road -- whether it is okay or bumpy, paved or unpaved, etc.

By road conditions is meant whether the road has ample road warning signs and if it has whether these are visible. More importantly, it needs to be determined whether such road signs, if they exist and are visible, are being observed and complied with.

It is very crucial to know the answer to these questions, just as it is crucial to know if road safety law enforcement agents habitually make their presence felt in these areas to make sure road safety requirements are met.

It would be safe to assume, however, that road safety signs, if they exist and are visible, are not being complied with or are being completely ignored. And that this can only be because the law enforcers are never ever there to enforce them.