Ban fuel and chemical trucks from the tunnel

This is one year that many of our close friends have gone ahead to the great beyond. I learned the other day our dear friend, Mr. Matias “Bombi” Aznar III, the eldest of the nine children of Don Matias Aznar II, founder of South Western University (SWU) passed away. We have known Bombi as one of Cebu’s great sportsmen, an avid golfer and chairman of Alta Vista Golf and Country Club. He was an icon in the sport of Chess as he supported many Cebuano chessmen. He was also Cebu’s foremost anglers who would go on fishing expeditions for long periods of time.

But above all, Bombi was a humble friend, who whenever he felt he had to make important decisions, would call upon a few of his friends for advice. He will be sadly missed. May we request the pious reader to please pray for the repose of his soul. Also lying in Cosmopolitan Funeral home in Nivel is another good friend Jose “Nonoy” Alba, President of Casino Español who, more than four years ago, was stricken with a rare cancer. In a way, he was one of my answered prayers. But alas, his cancer returned with a vengeance. But I told his wife, Mayette, that we are comforted by the fact that God gave Nonoy a few more years with his family as a bonus. Now he is with God. We also request the pious reader to please pray for the repose of his soul.

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Cebu City Councilor Roberto “Bob” Cabarrubias is proposing to file a city ordinance to ban heavy vehicles and cargo trucks from using the newly-opened tunnel under Plaza Independencia, including pedestrians and motorcycles as a safety precaution. I’m not totally against the proposed measure. In fact, I’m glad that finally, someone in the City Council is looking ahead to prevent potential problems, rather than being their usual reactionary selves. However, before they come up with that ban, they must first find out what the dangers are in driving inside the tunnel.

Perhaps, a ban on fuel or chemical trucks, which shouldn’t be allowed, just in case they rear-end another vehicle and cause an explosion that could destroy the tunnel. This happened way back in 1999 at the famous Mont Blanc in France, where a cargo truck burst into flames. But since the Mont Blanc is close to 10-kilometers long, a bigger problem ensued when the ventilation system blew toxic smoke into the tunnel, worsened by the fact that the drivers of the stalled vehicles didn’t turn off their engines and added to the fumes inside the tunnel.

Our tunnel is just over a kilometer long; therefore, it is much easier for any fumes or smoke to clear up or for rescuers to clean any accident debris. However, prudence dictates that we should seriously consider banning chemical and fuel trucks from entering the tunnel.

As for motorcycles, again as an avid motorcyclist, the only danger I can see when a biker enters that tunnel is when he is at speed and the roadway is slippery. This problem can be avoided if we strictly enforce a speed limit inside the tunnel. But there are small bikes and big bikes. Supposedly, motorcycles having an engine displacement of less than 400cc are banned from national tollways. If at all, we want to be strict, we should impose a no-overloading of motorcycles inside the tunnel.

I have been in that tunnel many times before during our inspection trips with the Regional Monitoring Committee of the Regional Development Council (RDC-7) but I have only passed it once when it was opened. It is clear to me that for as long as the City of Cebu doesn’t put CITOM enforcers on both ends of the tunnel, any ban would be a futile exercise.

During my watch as RDC Chairman of the Infrastructure Development Committee (IDC) while the construction for the Fernan Bridge was ongoing, we created the Mactan-Cebu Bridge Management Board to handle problems that would surface in both the two bridges spanning the Mactan channel. Hence, I would like to suggest to Hon. Cabarrubias that when they pass the law enacting CITOM to be a Department, it must have a component or a group that specifically handles the tunnel.

If there is anything that I wanted to impose in both bridges to Mactan and is equally relevant to the Cebu City tunnel, it is that slow vehicles, regardless of size should always use the right lane. In foreign roadways, slow vehicles are apprehended for taking the left lane which is the lane that motorist use for passing slow vehicles. But notice in Cebu. Our slow vehicles, especially those confounded multi-cabs always use the left-lane and even straddle in between lanes. Worse, they can do this with impunity because there are no traffic vehicles or motorcycles that would apprehend these offending drivers. What we need is a law on this so we can impose fines on slow vehicles using the left-lane.

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