EDITORIAL — Bull-ards

In a recent editorial we pointed out how accidents involving motor vehicles can become preventable just by improving some factors. These include factors such as driving skills, vehicle condition, road conditions, among others.

Also, because there is really no such thing as preventing accidents from happening 100%, there are environmental safety features or measures that can lessen how serious or damaging an accident can become.

Bollards are one of those. They are supposed to prevent vehicles from crossing over into certain areas.

This is now an issue following the failure of bollards installed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 1. Those bollards could have prevented a sports utility vehicle from running into a crowd, killing two people including a child, and injuring four others last Sunday.

Bollards are supposed to be strong enough to stop a vehicle. But those installed at the terminal failed to do exactly what they were put there for.

We aren’t sure where the point of failure took place, but from what we can see in photos, the pins on the bollards don’t go that deep into the ground. The design of the bollard itself is only on the surface instead of going deep underground like a permanent barrier should; it would appear that they were just screwed in place and likely to give way if pushed with sufficient force.

Well, yes, heads have to roll for this oversight, for this apparently cosmetic dressing disguised as a safety measure. And according to some reports the price to install those bollards was quite high at ?8 million. And this incident certainly revealed they were not worth such a price.

On the other hand, the price of two lives for such a lesson learned is quite high.

But now we just can’t help but ask ourselves --as well as authorities and owners of private buildings-- how safe are some “safety features” installed in different parts of our urban centers, public areas, critical infrastructure, and others. Are bollards and barriers in many areas really capable of holding back a runaway SUV? Are pedestrians safe when a panicked or careless driver steps on the gas instead of the brakes?