3 killed in ambulance mishap on Skyway

MANILA, Philippines - A cancer patient and his wife were killed early morning yesterday after the ambulance they were riding crashed into a toll plaza booth of the Skyway portion in Taguig City.

Felix and Rosal Soler together with ambulance crew Rio Panganiban were declared dead at the Makati Medical Center.

Soler’s children Melba and Mary Grace who accompanied their parents and driver Noel Mercado are recuperating at the same hospital. 

Edwin Dalangin, distant relative of Rosal, told The STAR that the victims were supposed to rush Felix to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH) in Manila from their house in San Carlos, Rosario, Batangas.

A teary-eyed Feliz Jr. told The STAR as of 3:30 p.m. only his younger sister Mary Grace, 22, was awake. His older sister Melba, 35, has yet to gain consciousness.

“I pity (Mary Grace) she’s so young and she’s also the one working for her family,” Dalangin said.

A doctor at the Makati Medical Center’s emergency section declined any interview for Mercado pending the investigation.

Sketchy investigation report showed that the ambulance, instead of passing through the tollgate designated for ambulance and fire truck, passed and rammed into the Tollgate 6 of Skyway’s northbound portion about 6:10 a.m.

The toll booth teller Marlyn Buta who sustained bruises was rush to Parañaque Doctors Hospital and was released hours later.