THE Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) Board wants all drivers of public and private vehicles to always carry with them either white chalk or waterproof crayons.
These materials, City Administrator Lucelle Mercado said, can be used by the drivers to mark the exact location of the vehicles involved in minor traffic accidents.
This is also required under Section 1 of City Ordinance 1946, which requires “drivers to use chalk or waterproof crayons in marking (on the pavement or street) the exact location of the vehicles involved in vehicular accidents regardless of the amount sustained from damage to property, except however, when accidents result in injury or death of any person or where it is impossible to mark the road due to bad condition of the same such as rough or muddy roads.”
Mercado, who sits in the Citom Board, said that the move will help avoid traffic congestion when an accident occurs on a certain road.
“After the markings, they can move already their vehicles to avoid disturbing the traffic flow,” she said.
Mercado explained that both drivers involved in a minor accident can respectively mark the positions of their tires during the accident, while waiting for the responding traffic enforcers to evaluate the situation and make an official sketch of the accident.
Prosecutor Mary Ann Castro, also a member of the Citom Board, explained that if a vehicle has turned upside down or in a position where the tires are not on the road, the driver must mark only the exact position of the body of the vehicle that touches the ground.
Remind
“Not everyone is aware of this. That is why we have to remind them,” Castro said.
Citom will start informing all the drivers on Monday about the matter.
The traffic group will also include this in their seminars to drivers, so they will be aware of this policy.