Truck kills toddler in Mandaluyong

MANILA, Philippines - A toddler was crushed by a delivery truck that skidded from a gated compound onto a street in Mandaluyong City Thursday.

Reggie Gamalo, 18 months old, was playing with his tricycle on Calbayog street in Barangay Addition Hills when the accident happened at around 5:30 p.m., Police Officer 3 Isram Abdurakil said.

He said a delivery truck was parked in a hilly compound on the same street and truck driver Jolito Dablo joined his helpers in unloading its cargo. Dablo told police he placed a stopper to prevent the truck from skidding down the uneven land of the compound.

Dablo said the stopper gave way and the truck slipped, tearing through the compound’s iron gate and continuing down the street where a number of children, including Gamalo, were playing.

Gamalo’s mother, Maria, told police she was cooking dinner when heard a loud thud outside her house, followed by shouts. When she rushed out of the house, she saw her child still on his tricycle, pinned under one of the truck’s tires. Bystanders pulled out Gamalo and rushed him to the Mandaluyong City Medical Center, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Another resident, 60-year-old Teodoro Projilla, was drinking on the street when the truck hit his leg. He is being treated at the same hospital. 

Dablo, who surrendered to police, admitted to his lapses but insisted that it was a freak accident. Investigators are preparing to charge Dablo with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide.