Death on EDSA: Woman hit by car, dragged by taxi

Never has Bayani Fernando’s "Walang tatawid. Nakamamatay" sign lining the entire stretch of EDSA proved truer when a woman on her way home late Friday night paid dearly for ignoring the warning.

Senior Inspector Abner Castro, Caloocan City Traffic Enforcement Unit chief, identified the victim as Cheryl Bueno, 33, storekeeper-in-charge of Avid Sales Corp. in Cubao, Quezon City and a resident of 10th Avenue, Caloocan City.

Bueno succumbed to severe multiple injures of the head and body and was declared dead at 11:07 p.m. by Dr. Erick Macalintal of the Manila Central University (MCU) Hospital where she was taken.

Witnesses said the victim was hit successively by two speeding vehicles on EDSA near the Caloocan-Quezon City boundary.

Nathanael Kaw, 25, the driver of a Nissan Cefiro (XLZ-675) that first hit the victim, voluntarily surrendered to the police after the incident.

The driver of a white ABC Transport taxi (PXS-978) sped on after dragging the victim nearly a hundred meters farther from the site where she fell after getting bumped seconds earlier by the Cefiro.

Initial investigation showed Bueno had just alighted from a Monumento-bound bus and was hurrying home from work at around 10:05 p.m. when she crossed EDSA for the ride home at the other side.

She was already in the middle of the highway when she hesitated upon seeing the glare of the oncoming vehicles.

PO3 Virgilio Monina, traffic investigator, said the Cefiro slammed into Bueno sending her down on the pavement. The speeding taxi, only seconds away from the sedan, apparently failed to apply the brakes and dragged the fallen victim some 97 meters further.

The authorities are asking the hit-and-run taxi driver to present himself at the station to shed light on the incident.