A couple got injured after their car reportedly collided with a Toyota Innova mobile patrol car of the Cebu City Police Office yesterday morning at the Fuente Osmeña Rotonda.
Traffic investigator PO2 Anthony Deligero identified the victims as Franz Joseph Dador Villalonga, 39, and his wife Vanessa, 29, of 1933 Andres Abellana Extension in barangay Guadalupe. They were rushed to the Cebu Doctors University Hospital for their injuries.
The Villalonga couple were riding their Volkswagen car, with plate number GCC-540, while the police car, bearing car number 011 and plate number SHN-899, was driven by PO2 Norman Patindol of the Mobile Patrol Group.
Deligero said that Patindol was on his way to respond to an alarm of an armed person who was not wearing a helmet while riding a black XRM motorcycle that had no plate number. The police car was also using a blinker and a siren at the time.
The police report described the case as “collision” and that the two cars were running at opposing directions but it did not specify however to which directions the two vehicles were going at the time of the accident.
Reports also stated that the car of the Villalongas allegedly went toward the lane that the police car was taking then. Based on the investigation of SPO4 Hulyo Requina Jr. also, its was noted that Patindol was not liable at all because it was the private car that hit the police car.
Meanwhile, the motorcycle driver whom Patindol was trying to catch was identified as Cornelio Soronio, according to Jun Comeros of the Desk Radio Operation of 116.
Soronio, a resident of sitio Cansas in barangay Kalunasan, reportedly abandoned the motorcycle and a green jacket, which were later recovered by the police. Aside from Patindol’s patrol car, six other police cars were chasing Soronio, but the lawmen failed to arrest him. — Brenda D. Batuto and Guam Logroño/RAE