CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA) here is set to include the procurement of speed gun units in the next budget allocation.
MOTORCYCLES and four-wheel vehicles ply the route of Don Apolinar Velez St., Cagayan de Oro City, on Wednesday morning, June 14. (Franck Dick Rosete)
Speed guns are vital for the strict implementation of speed limits on various streets in the city.
Engr. Nonito Oclarit, RTA assistant department head, said there was already an approved budget for the procurement of speed guns in 2019 but the budget had been realigned because of other much more important purposes.
"Necessary gayud sya. So, amo ni gigahinan nga naay budget aron mapalit na namo na sya nga sa local na gayud, sa ato na mismo (It is really necessary. So, we will allocate a budget so that we can already purchase them like our own)," Oclarit said during the Meet the Press session of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club on Wednesday, June 14.
Oclarit said a speed gun has an estimated cost of P500,000, however, they also received a tip that there are other units that are much cheaper.
RTA is planning to purchase two units of speed guns to strictly implement the speed limit simultaneously in both the west and east parts of the city.
The vehicles are not allowed to run faster than 30 kilometers per hour within the city as mandated in Section 45 of Article VIII of Ordinance No. 10551-2007 or the Traffic Code of the City of Cagayan de Oro.
For main streets enumerated under the order or boulevards, clear of traffic and with no blind corners, the speed must not be greater than 50 kph. From Licoan here to Barangay Macabalan, it must not be greater than 40 kph.
For vehicles approaching pedestrian lanes, the speed limit is 20 kph. In school zones (50 meters from the designated pedestrian lane), the vehicle’s speed must not be greater than 20 kph within the poblacion and 30 kph if it is along a highway.
However, the above-mentioned speed limits shall not be applicable to a physician or his driver when responding to an emergency call, including the drivers of a hospital ambulance on the way to and from the place of the accident and any drivers bringing a wounded or sick person.
This includes the driver of a motor vehicle belonging to the Armed Forces while in use for official purposes, drivers and passengers who are in pursuit of a criminal, and a law enforcer who is trying to overtake a violator of traffic laws.
On Dec. 5, 2022, Councilor Romeo Calizo, chairman of the city council’s committee on public order and safety, made a special report stressing the importance of strict speed limit implementation due to the increasing number of vehicular accidents.
According to the data from the Traffic Enforcement Unit of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office, police recorded a total of 2,748 road crash incidents in 2021, with 39 deaths.
The incidents recorded in 2022, however, went down, totaling 1,923 road crash incidents with 37 deaths. Meanwhile, the COCPO’s traffic unit has already recorded 561 incidents this year, including 19 deaths.
ROADS and Traffic Administration Assistant Department head Engr. Nonito Oclarit answers questions from the media during the Meet the Press session of the Cagayan de Oro Press Club on Wednesday, June 14. (Franck Dick Rosete)
However, overspeeding was not included among the majority of the causes of these incidents.
According to the same data, the major causes include driving under the influence of liquor, negligence on the part of the driver, poor signage, poor road lighting, or driving in low-light conditions, lane grabbing, tailgating, beating the red light, overtaking on a bridge, and failure to observe safe side distance, among others.
Despite the absence of speed guns, the RTA occasionally implemented the speed limit in coordination with the Land Transportation Office (LTO)-Region 10.
Samuel Aguilar, LTO-10 law enforcement section and operations division chief, confirmed that the agency has one speed gun unit, and they also occasionally monitor streets in the city, especially those that have "speed limit signage."