“We will coordinate with government agencies to see to it that laws and ordinances on the highway are properly followed. We will conduct more information dissemination on the enforcement and respect for highway regulations,” Dinalupihan Mayor Maria Angela “Gila” Garcia said.
For other measures the municipal government will undertake to prevent repetition of accidents of such nature, the mayor said more CCTVs will be installed at the Jose Abad Santos Avenue (JASA) for quick response and stop over speeding vehicles.
She said she will coordinate with the Metro Bataan Development Authority under its second phase for the installation of CCTVs in the former Gapan – Olongapo Road.
“This is the first major accident that happened during my term with so many injured and casualties,” Garcia said. She is on her third term as mayor.
A 14-wheeler truck bound for Olongapo City overtook another vehicle but in the process collided with an incoming passenger jeepney at 7:09 in the morning of Friday in Barangay Luakan.
“Nagmamabilis ang mga sasakyan sa lugar na yon,” she said.
Garcia said she has coordinated with hospitals where the injured were brought for treatment “to give them all the medical attention.”
She said the municipal government and the provincial government of Bataan will extend help to the victims. “We conducted interviews to the victims and their families to know their needs,” the mayor said.
Garcia said a pregnant woman was among those injured and brought to the Jose Payumo District Hospital in Dinalupihan. “Sa pagkakaalam ko nanganak na at healthy ang baby at ayos naman ang ina,” she said.
She said that of the 16 injured, three are the Bataan Peninsula Medical Center in Dinalupihan, five at the Bataan General Hospital in Balanga City, three at the James Gordon Memorial Hospital in Olongapo City and the rest at the Jose Payumo District Hospital in Dinalupihan.
