TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines- In July, Rappler posted a video of video of the police drawing a pedestrian lane in front of a Tuguegarao primary school using a chalk. It was an experiment for road safety.
Gary Ramirez, a local businessman in Metro Manila, was able to watch that video and decided to help in putting up pedestrian lanes, this time, permanent ones.
Partnering with Boysen Paints, Ramirez and his son went to the city September 28 and 29 to paint pedestrian lanes.
Ramirez’s son, Juan Carlos, said he contributed the proceeds of a small business he had in December.
His group was able to paint nine areas: Annafunan East Elementary School, Linao Elementary School, Bagay Elementary School, Buntun Elementary School, Pallua Elementary School, Tuguegarao City West High School, Balzain road, front of Cagayan Valley Medical Center, front of the Tuguegarao City Hall.
“We found out that Tuguegarao was one of the dangerous places when it comes to road safety. In fact, I heard a while ago that two students got ran over about a year ago or this year,” Ramirez said.
“[This is] preventive measure that we are doing. We hope that in a small, this would be of help,” he added.
He added that putting up pedestrian lanes will make motorists more cautions as it set a warning that there could be young students who are crossing the roads.
Boysen Paints’ marketing executive Michael Barretto said the project is part of their social responsibility to public schools in ensuring that they provided with the “right” and “safe” crossing lanes.
Barretto said Boysen Paints donated a special type of reflective paint. He said the paint used will be more visible to approaching motorists both in day and night.
Tuguegarao, according to police data, has the highest case of road crash in Cagayan in 2016. And the students are vulnerable to being hit by speeding vehicles as most schools in this city had no pedestrian lanes.
Clifford Macababbad, the barangay chairman of Linao East, said one elementary student had been ran over by a tricycle in 2015.
Macababbad said the incident happened just as the students are coming out of their school. He believed it was caused by the lack of pedestrian lane in the area.
One elementary student was also hit by an approaching vehicle in Barangay Pallua.
Macababbad said he is thankful of Ramirez’s group and is now hoping that no student will be run over vehicles.
For the part of Tuguegarao City government, Councilor Claire Callangan said she will initiate a legislation at the city council to conduct information dissemination on the different measures for road safety. Northernforum.net
