By TYRONE A. VELEZ
Davao Today
DAVAO CITY – A surprise inspection by transportation agents on terminals in the city discovered irregularities in the registration of some buses and passenger vans.
The Land Transportation Office inspection discovered two buses with different chassis engines from what were listed in official document.
The buses were Bachelor Express with number 4552 plying the Davao-Butuan route and Del Norte Fighters with number 1062 plying the Davao-Mati route.
The inspectors confiscated the buses’ numbered plates as well as the licenses of the bus drivers on violation of illegal chassis law or what they call as ‘colorum’ units.
Two other passenger vans at SM Ecoland also violated the same offense.
The inspectors also checked some old buses and noted some of these have worn out tires.
The violations would net each company a penalty of P6,000 and a warning that the next offense would lead to impounding of the vehicle.
The LTO ordered its regional units to conduct the inspection of passenger vehicles nationwide following the ravine fall of a bus in Mountain Province that killed a television comedian and 16 other passengers.
The LTO Region 11 inspectors were accompanied by members of the Land Transport and Franchising Regulatory Board here and made the rounds of the city’s bus terminal in Ecoland and passenger van terminal at SM Ecoland.
LTO Assistant Regional Director Macario Gonzaga warned bus and van operators to comply with proper documentation of their vehicles.
The issue of regulating passenger buses came after the accident of the ill-fated GV Florida Transit bus that fell in a 100-meter deep ravine in Mountain Province last week that killed 17 people .
Transport officials discovered that the bus carried the registration of another bus, depriving victims of accident insurance payments.
Gonzaga admitted that past inspections have been lenient but said they would be strict in their succeeding random inspections.
He also said a thorough inspection of buses should need an order from their national office to let bus companies allow transport inspectors to enter their compound. (Tyrone Velez/
davaotoday.com)
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