Misguided Enforcement On The SCTEX

Comment from a reader on "SCTEX Cowboys On Revenue Hunt"

It was not too long ago there was in this "The Subic Bulletin" articles or "threads" about problems with the SCTEX Road.

There was even a castigation for officers enforcing speeders by this blog. As I recall, to paraphrase, The police should have something better to do than chase cars doing a little bit over the speed limit.

Now today I read in one the Manila newspapers that 10 have died on SCTEX. I assume that this is between Christmas and today December 29th, 2009 and not all at once. It was bound to happen with cars doing up 180 kilometers per hour on the road. How do the families of those 10 victims face the New Year? A true Tragedy. Is it too much to ask that the rules of a country be followed and enforced?

[The Subic Bulletin] Thank you for your comments however they are somewhat inaccurate as you seem to have jumped to conclusions.

The Media reports of 10 dead was a truck accident in Aurora Province nowhere near the SCTEX, it just happens that accident occurred during the same week as a 7 car pileup on the Tarlac portion of the SCTEX which killed 4.

The accident on the SCTEX was solely due to a car that stopped in the middle of the road amidst heavy smoke that was blowing across the freeway diminishing their vision. Speed was again not a factor in this accident unless you consider that the car had broken the min 60kph limit on the expressway, but is the minimum speed enforced anyway?

We will of course argue that if the patrolmen had been doing their real job and patrolling the freeway instead of hiding in the bushes trying to make extra revenue as pretend policemen they could have seen the grass-fire and used traffic control methods to prevent the pileup as well as calling the fire brigade, all of which was not done until after the pileup had occurred.

Although you misquoted us with "The police should have something better to do than chase cars doing a little bit over the speed limit" the bottom line is, in this case they could have saved four lives and several other injuries if they had been doing exactly that, "something better", if they had been doing their REAL job they could of saved lives instead of chasing revenue.

Now before anyone else runs out accusing us of being anti enforcement lets make a few points clear. Enforcement is definitely a good thing and supported by The Subic Bulletin but should be performed by the correct authority with the correct training and motives, we don't believe the expressway patrolmen are the correct authorities and the expressway operator can't even decide what the correct speed limit is http://thesubicbulletin.blogspot.com/2009/07/sctex-radar-speed-traps-for-what-speed.html
The press, after interviewing the freeway operator reported that the expressway speed limit was 120kph http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20091229-244526/Burning-ban-sought-near-SCTEx-after-4-die-in-smash-up Is it 80, 100 or 120 kph that they are enforcing?

How can we possibly support private sector enforcers working for a corporation that can't even get the official speed limit properly signposted?

Furthermore the Expressway Patrolmen will demand that you give them your drivers licesence, apart from the fact that the PNP says that this is not legal, they are taking away your ability to appeal the the ticket issued to you by a private contractor, this seems very close to blackmail and certainly treads on civilian rights provided for by the constitution.

Enforcement should only be allowed by the private sector where certain performance and training levels can be proven and the constitutional rights of the citizen are respected, the freeway operator falls well short on both counts.