Girl’s death on road poses challenge to gov’t engineers

By Liezle BasaInigo

MANAOAG, Pangasinan — A five-year-old kindergarten graduate with honors was killed last Monday in a road accident in Barangay Babasit, here, bringing to fore the issue of road safety which a new bill seeks to ensure by penalizing engineers of government road projects that are poorly built or maintained.

Like in many road accident cases, Zyreen Kay D.C. Tiongco was crossing the road in Barangay Babasit, here, when a speeding Honda XRM motorcycle and a softdrink delivery truck cruising behind it both struck the little girl.

Tiongco, and her parents from Barangay San Andres 1, Quezon town, Nueva Ecija, had just visited the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary of Manaoag when the accident happened.

For areas like Manaoag with a big volume of visitors, especially during the Lenten Season, Quezon 3rd District Rep. Aleta C. Suarez believes roads must not only be properly built, but significantly maintained with road signs, pedestrian crossings, and traffic lights.

Suarez filed last week House Bill 327, titled “The Road Condition and Signage Accountability Act,” which seeks “to penalize nonfeasance in the maintenance of road conditions and signage.”

She said that government engineers must be held accountable for death and injury due to poor road conditions, poor maintenance of road signs, and defective traffic lights.

Suarez proposes violators to face a minimum of P500,000 fine, but not exceeding to P2 million and imprisonment of a minimum of two years and maximum of five years.

Identified in her bill are Department of Public Works and Highways district engineers under the national road of his jurisdiction and provincial, municipal, and city engineers under their territorial jurisdiction.