Amid the excitement over class opening on Monday, June 8, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) is focusing on an important matter in order not to spoil that feeling—road safety.
For LTFRB Chairman Vigor D. Mendoza II, road crashes can be contained through aggressive proactive measures that include regular monitoring of road worthiness of vehicles and the mental and physical readiness of the drivers.
“With more vehicles hitting the road for class opening, Mendoza said it comes with even bigger probability of road crashes.
“The best gift that the LTFRB and other government transport-related agencies could give is a strong assurance that the kids will be safe from road crashes,” said Mendoza.
Part of the measure, according to him, is the effort to run after erring and abusive motorists.
The past few weeks, the LTFRB has been very busy in issuing show cause orders and ordering suspensions of operations as a result of road crashes across the country.
Aside from immediate actions, Mendoza is also pushing to weaponize social media content against the so-called kamote motorists.
“The certainty that those who would be involved in road crashes are called out and punished is one of our preventive measures,” said Mendoza.
Mendoza said he already tasked LTFRB regional officials to strictly monitor compliance of road safety rules and regulations to all public utility vehicles it allowed to operate is a laudable action.
And this was not limited to PUVs, particularly tricycles and jeepneys, according to Mendoza.
He said this extends to school services wherein the LTFRB has supervision and disciplinary power.
Based on the LTFRB data, there are 2,552 operators of school services with 3,215 units issued with franchises across the country.
Likewise, monitoring will also be conducted for thousands more motor vehicles, especially motorcycles, which are being used to bring and fetch kids to and from their respective schools.
But limited manpower, Mendoza said they are coordinating with other agencies for the road safety campaign.