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Police officers to direct traffic at intersections
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Posted on Aug 15 2008
In response to growing concerns from the public, police officers will be stationed at four traffic lights around the island when power outages occur, acting DPS Commissioner Santiago F. Tudela announced Friday.
Beginning Sunday, officers will report to the following locations to direct traffic when there is a power outage: the intersection at Garapan and Middle Road near the Happy Market; the intersection on Middle Road near the Commonwealth Hospital Center; the intersection near the Microl Corp. in San Jose; and the intersection near Chalan Kiya Village and the Mobil Station.
“We will be contacting [the Commonwealth Utilities Corp.] for cooperation from them regarding plans on how to get a 5 to10 minute heads-up before they shut it [power] off, so we can have officers designated for load changes, so we can protect the citizens from running into each other,” said Police Division chief Lawrence Camacho.
CUC executive director Antonio Muna said he would work with DPS to provide a schedule, but with the current state of the engines, unexpected outages often occur.
Muna said he would inform DPS when CUC was switching down from three to one or two engines.
Tudela said officers would not be sent out at night or when it is raining.
“We value the officer’s life first and foremost,” he said.
Motorists often aren’t cognizant to the officers outside, Camacho said.
“We value the person’s life, we just can’t sacrifice anyone getting injured,” he said.
When no officer is present, motorists need to follow basic laws and extend courtesy to other drivers, Tudela said.
The first vehicle to stop at the intersection has the right of way, Tudela said, and when two cars arrive at the same time, the car on the right goes first.
DPS will soon be publishing information on the four-way stop rule, Tudela said.
“We’re going to have that out as soon as possible, to educate the public on the rule of the four-way stop,” he said.
Camacho said officers would still be performing their regular duties on top of directing traffic.
