Damaged fiber optic cables cause disruptions, traffic in SLEX, Skyway, NAIAX, STAR

Damaged fiber optic cables in the radio frequency identification (RFID) system caused disruptions and traffic jam in some parts of SLEX, Skyway, NAIAX, and STAR Thursday morning.

In a tweet on Thursday, San Miguel Corporation (SMC) said the operations have been restored and apologized to the motorists for the inconvenience.

“ETC operations on SLEX and parts of Skyway, NAIAX, and STAR have been restored following disruption to our supplier's network caused by damaged fiber optic cables,” the SMC said in a statement.

“We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused our motorists. We are doing everything we can to ensure this incident does not happen again,” it added.

Meanwhile, Julius Corpus, spokesperson of the Toll Regulatory Board, said the toll operators have implemented intervention measures to ease the traffic in the expressways.

“Around 7 a.m. nagkaroon ng breakdown yung ating telco provider, it was the communications line ng ating mga toll plaza kaya nangyari 'yan ng peak hours 7 a.m. in the morning kaya po ang laking aberya,” Corpus said in an interview with Super Radyo dzBB on Thursday afternoon.

“Ang ginawa ng ating toll operator was to [implement] intervention measures 'yung barrier app or free flow ang ginawa po nila nang sa ganoon mas mapabilis po at hindi na bumagal doon at magtraffic,” he said.

Corpus said they will conduct an investigation on the incident, adding that the TRB will decide if there will be possible sanctions or warnings.

“Kami po ay gumawa na ng liham sa toll operators na magpaliwanag sa nangyaring ito sapagkat sisimulan po namin itong ating pagsusuri [o] imbestigasyon kung meron bang kapabayaan na nangyari dito sa ating toll operators or were they able to institute the measures na kailangan nilang gawin on a timely manner,” he said.

“Gagawa po tayo ng report sa ating pamunuan sa TRB na sila naman po ang magdedesisyon kung meron bang necessary penalties, warnings, that may be imposed dito sa ating toll operator dito sa nangyari kanina,” he added.

He said they will also ask the toll operator to explain.

The TRB spokesperson also urged motorists who were overcharged to report to their agency.

“Idulog lang po sa amin kung may napansin silang sa tingin nila naovercharge sila, idulog lang po sa aming tanggapan,” he said.

“Although, they can go directly to the operator kung sa tingin nila mas makakatulong po kami ay amin pong tatanggapin ang kanilang mga reklamo at ating gagawan ng paraan na mailagay sa tama ang paniningil sa bawat isang motorista,” he added.

Corpus said motorists can also send their concerns to record@trb.gov.ph.

Netizens have shared photos and videos of the heavy traffic on social media, according to Cedric Castillo’s “24 Oras” report on Thursday.

The length of the traffic in the expressway earlier was longer than the length noted in the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the Department of Transportation (DOTr) on contactless transactions for all vehicles traveling on toll expressways.

Based on the IRR, the toll barriers shall be raised for at least five minutes allowing vehicles toll-free pass-thru until the traffic flow normalizes. Motorists shall not pay for toll fee while the barriers are raised.

According to Glen Juego of Super Radyo dzBB, the SMC Infrastructure said it opened affected toll plazas and waived toll fees, which covers around 84,000 vehicles that passed through the expressways from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m.

READ: Pahayag ng SMC Infrastracture sa nangyaring aberya sa RFID ng SLEX.

Tiniyak ng SMC ang electronic refund sa mga motorista na nakaltasan ng toll fee. @dzbb pic.twitter.com/PDU4ggcT4Q

— Glen Juego (@glenjuego) November 17, 2022

“This includes motorists whose ETC accounts were deducted upon entry; they will receive electronic refunds in their Autosweep accounts. While the system was restored around 9 am, we decided to keep barriers at toll plazas up, to enable all affected motorists to pass through for free,” the SMC said in a separate statement.

The SMC said they are still determining the root cause of the damage, citing that “there are indications that a major vehicular accident may have contributed to the situation.”

“Again, we apologize for the inconvenience, and ask for our motorists' understanding, as we work to ensure that we deliver the same high level of efficiency and reliability they have come to expect from us, at all times,” it added. —AOL/BM, GMA Integrated News