MRT3 admin must shoulder expenses, give prosthetic arm to woman who lost limb in accident

Lawmakers from the House of Representatives on Tuesday urged the administration of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT3) should exact all means to help the woman who lost her right arm due to an accident.

In a statement, Bagong Henerasyon party-list Representative Bernadette Herrera-Dy said the MRT-3 administration should shoulder all medical, hospitalization, and related post-hospitalization expenses of 24-year-old Angeline Fernando.

"MRT3 must get the victim the best prosthetic device at no cost to her. MRT3 must also indemnify the victim for her income loss," Herrera-Dy said.

Fernando had just gotten off the train at MRT3 Ayala Station when she felt dizzy and fell on the tracks.

She got caught between the first and second cars of the train resulting in her right arm being severed.

Herrera-Dy highlighted the need to have an insurance in light rail and railway services that will cover accidents and other unfortunate incidents.

"I also take this opportunity to call for much better security and crowd management measures at our light rail and railway facilities. Obviously, the measures they have are not enough," she added.

AANGAT TAYO party-list Rep. Neil Abayon echoed Herrera-Dy's sentiment, saying that the provision of an insurance coverage would ensure that victims will be properly compensated and the government is protected against liability costs.

Abayon said there are different ways to apply the insurance, such as through microinsurance on a per passenger per trip basis, or rail firms getting insurance covering their entire networks.

Another approach, he said, is for rail firms to require maintenance and operations service providers to get the insurance coverage.

"Bottomline is the cost to the riding public and the government must be reasonably minimal or hardly felt," Abayon said.

"Higher fare rates must not be the result of the insurance coverage for these incidents," he added. — Erwin Colcol/MDM, GMA News