Online petition on buses: No speed limiters, no franchise

MANILA, Philippines – More than 2,000 people have so far signed an online petition asking the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory board to require electronic speed limiters on buses – both public and private – across the country.

If the bus operators do not comply, government should revoke their franchises, the petition states. 

C! Magazine editor-at-large James Deakin, who started the petition, is also calling on government to take over the operations of public buses in the country.

“I never thought I would encourage the government to take over anything, but another primary reason that bus drivers speed is because they are ‘racing’ to the next passengers,” he writes. Most bus drivers in the country do not earn a fixed amount. Instead, they pay bus owners a fixed amount daily – whatever is left is their day’s wages.

The online petition comes the same week an overspeeding Don Mariano bus fell off the Metro Manila Skyway, crushing a van on the road below. At least 18 died because of the accident.

“If this last Skyway accident is not enough reason to completely shut down the privatization of bus companies, then the next accident is no longer the driver’s fault, but the fault of the people who grant them the license to operate such a barbaric system,” he write in the petition. 

Deakin said speed limiters were not new, nor expensive. “But it could solve over 90 percent of this problem,” he said. “Buses racing with one another for passengers, or pride, or ego, or fun, or for some perverse point to prove,” Deakin said.

Speed regulators, says Deakin, would work to “cage” errant bus drivers.

“I’m not trying to generalize by saying every single bus driver is evil and will eventually drive his passengers into a fiery grave, but those that aren’t won’t have a problem with this technology anyway,” he writes in the Change.org petition.

He suggests a 50-kilometer-per-hour limit for buses plying EDSA and an 80 km/h limit for provincial buses. Sensors on speed limiters detect a vehicle’s speed, if it goes beyond a pre-set limit, the engine’s computers trigger changes in the car to lower your speed, according to a automotive website.  

“So of (sic) you are sick of seeing the same old people get away with murder, please sign and share this petition until something is done,” Deakin writes.

There is a proposal in Congress similar to Deakin’s suggestion.

On Wednesday, December 18, Iloilo Representative Jerry Trenas filed a bill seeking to require the installation of speed limiters in city and provincial buses.

Under House Bill 3624, those who don’t install speed limiters will be penalized with one year imprisonment and a P300,000 fine. Speed limiters will also be a requirement for bus operators seeking to get or renew a franchise. Persons who tamper with the speed limiters get 6 months in jail and a P100,000 fine.

National highways and expressways with minimum speeds of 60 kph or higher are exempted from Trenas’ bill. – Bea Cupin/Rappler.com