Lack of traffic lights: Citom enforcers risk getting hit by moving vehicles in north road
Ervic Navarro, 33, is assigned in the same intersection where a female traffic aide died after she was hit by a Korean’s van that was exiting a mall to enter the Banilad-Talamban road.
TOUGH SPOT. Traffic aide Ervic Navarro directs vehicles in the same junction where Citom co-worker Maria Teresa Bascones died after being hit by the van of a Korean driver near Country Mall. (CDN PHOTO/ LITO TECSON)
Navarro said the danger of getting run over is part of the job, but he takes extra care in his movements.
With seven years of field experience in the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom), the traffic aide said he knows how to position himself on the street and stay alert for incoming vehicles.
“Wala raman ko nahadlok nga bisan ako ang napuli niya diri kay aksidente man tong nahitabo niya . Basta kay kahibaw lang ka ug sweto ka sa lugar nga imong gi-man ug kung asa ka dapit mo pwesto (I’m not afraid to be the replacement. What happened was an accident. As long as I know the right spot to man traffic and stay visible I’ll be fine),” Navarro said.
Navarro was reassigned there last Wednesday, a day after the 38-year-old traffic aide Maria Theresa Bascones was killed.
The area is familiar to him. He was assigned in the Banilad-Talamban corridor in January.
At first, he said, he had a hard time adjusting because the area lacks traffic lights.
A traffic enforcer has to stand there on the road to keep traffic moving smoothly because there are not traffic signal lights there, said. Navarro.
“Parte naman gyud na sa trabaho namo ang disgrasya. Ang pagtindog palang daan tunga sa dalan kuyaw na,” he said.
(Accidents are part of our job. Just standing in the middle of the road is dangerous.)
Added to this, he said, is the threats made by drivers, “labi sa private vehicle nga dumtan mi nga ingon balikan daw mi” (especially private vehicle drivers who hold a grudge and say they’ll get even later.)
The death of Bascon has caused “low morale” in the 180-member Citom department said its executive director Raffy Yap, especially after the Korean female driver was freed after posting P30,000 bail.
A charge of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide was filed against the woman.
Traffic aides who get killed in the line of duty get a standard P10,000 burial assistance for their families but not much else.
When Cebu Daily News visited the accident site yesterday, Navarro was standing just below the skywalk linking Gaisano Country Mall and the University of Cebu (UC) Banilad Campus across the street.
The spot is a short distance away from the busy junction. Vehicles were moving in and out of the mall, as usual.
“Pwede raman mu left-turn basta gikan and pasulod sa mall (It’s all right to turn left coming out of the sold or entering),” he said.
Ironically, this was a contast to the reported instruction Mayor Michael Rama gave after the July 8 accident to enforce a “no-left-turn” rule near the accident site for vehicles entering the mall’s parking lot.
Citom will be meeting with the management of Gaisano Country Mall to find ways to ease traffic there, said Citom operations chief Joy Tumulak, who said the mayor reminded him of this after the accident that claimed Bascones’ life.
Bascones was hit by a Hyundai Tucson station wagon driven by Korean Sun Kyeong Heo , who tried to turn left to Governor Cuenco Avenue heading for Talamaban after exiting the mall.
Citom has refocused the bulk of their traffic aides to the northern Ban-Tal corridor ever since Mayor Rama imposed a “no left turn” policy on the traffic-clogged road lin June as an emergency measure to ease traffic congestion.
A total of 61 enforcers were fielded in the north, with 42 in Central Cebu City and 43 personnel in the south.
The north has more traffic volume, intersections and a concentration of business establishments in the Ban-Tal area “so we expect more congestion there”, said Tumulak.
Navarro pointed to the spot where his co-worker was hit near the junction. He said an enforcer standing there may not be easily visible to drivers coming out of the mall.
If you’re maneuvering left, the tendency is to focus on incoming vehicles from the city and by then the driver may not notice someone standing there, he said.
Despite the nature and danger of his job, Navarro said he always wakes up ready to face whatever challenges lie ahead of him in the day.
With two children in kindergarten and grade three, Navarro said his salary of more than P10,000 a month makes it difficult to make ends meet.
Citom doesn’t extend hazard pay to enforcers, citing budget and audit restrictions.
Asked about hazard pay, Navarro said that like any traffic aide, he hopes his monthly income could be augmented by this.
Aside from being exposed to moving vehicles on the street, the risks include threats from angry drivers who are stopped for traffic violations.
He recalled an incident in 2008 in which a motorcycle driver he caught for not following traffic lights in Sanciangko Street verbally threatened to get even.
Navarro said the man followed him and showed up a few days later, watching him across the street.
Sensing danger, Navarro said he reported the threat to the police and had the incident blottered. A senior traffic aide accompanied him on the job for three days as a precaution.
Since last year, a buddy system has been practiced in Citom to deter any incidents of revenge-violence.
This came after traffic enforcer Armando Daligdig was shot dead while manning traffic near a flyover in barangay Banilad, Cebu City by Geoffrey Borinaga, a policeman dismissed from the service.
Police said Daligdig was an aggressive traffic aide who had the most number of traffic violation apprehensions in his eight years of service. The gunman was someone he had apprehend in the past.
“Their only weapon is their radio to call for help from other traffic enforcers nearby whenever untoward incident happens,” said Tumulak, the operations officer.
“But I will never recommend to issue firearms to our traffic aides.”
Considering the dangers of their field work, the Citom official chief said the public should be patient and understand that traffic aides are just doing their job in enforcing rules and establishing order and smooth traffic flow especially in tricky areas like the Banilad-Talamban corridor.
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