One dead, four hurt in vehicular accidents

CEBU, Philippines – A second-year high school student was killed while two others were seriously wounded in a vehicular accident in Danao City yesterday evening.

Gerald Capuyan Caraso died after he was hit by a speeding Isuzu Elf truck and a multicab that were both heading to the city.

According to SPO1 Renante Manulat, Gerald Capuyan Caraso was riding pillion on the motorcycle driven by his friend Joselim Juntilla when they hit a bicycle driven by 11-year-old Louie Muñoz.

Juntilla and Caraso were thrown onto the pavement, Juntilla lost consciousness while Caraso tried to crawl to the roadside for safety but was hit by first a speeding multicab and then the truck which was following closely behind. 

He died of severe head fractures. Juntilla and Muñoz were rushed to the hospital.

Manulat said that Caraso earlier asked Juntilla to drive him to school as he was about to review for his final exams.

Witnesses to the accident said that the multicab and the truck were trying to overtake each other which was why they did not see Caraso crawling on the road.

Both the drivers of the Isuzu elf and the multicab have yet to be found.

Meanwhile, a retired army colonel and a truck boy were rushed to the hospital after a Tamaraw FX collided with a dump truck in barangay Gawi, Oslob town, last Saturday morning.

The driver of the dump truck bearing plate no. GLD-757 was identified as Elizar Amatiaga Cano, 32, of barangay Daanlunsod of the said town while the driver of the Tamaraw FX with plate no. GHL-259 was Jun Ylaya, 52, of barangay Bulacao Pardo, Cebu City.

Both drivers only sustained minor injuries in different parts of their bodies but retired army colonel Antonio Montebon Casagnap Jr., 66, of Tres de Abril St., Cebu City and the truck boy Arnulfo Ababa, 18, of barangay El Pardo, Boljoon town, were rushed to the hospital due to serious injuries.

They were first brought to the Oslob District Hospital but later transferred to a hospital in Cebu City for proper treatment.

SPO1 Joel Miñoza of Oslob police station said that both vehicles were already taken by the respective owners while the drivers and the passengers were still under the medication.  

The police are still waiting whether charges will be filed or an amicable settlement reached regarding the accident. — Jasmin R. Uy and Christopher Gabriel Bonjoc/BRP (THE FREEMAN)