Cadaver ‘killed’ anew by cabbie

Talk about adding insult to injury.

A sleepy cab driver found himself in trouble yesterday after he ran over a cadaver that was thrown out of a hearse along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City shortly before dawn yesterday.

But Quezon City investigators are still trying to figure out what case to file against Jimmy Bautista, the young cab driver who apparently bumped the parked hearse, then ran over the remains of the unidentified man who had died earlier of a heart attack at the East Avenue Medical Center.

Family members asked not to be identified, as they were preparing to deliver the body to a funeral parlor when the incident happened and had suffered enough already.

"Traffic investigators are preparing to file charges of reckless imprudence resulting in damage to property," traffic aide Cristanto Gragatin told The STAR in a telephone interview. "As to the cadaver, they are still uncertain of what case to file."

Initial police investigation said the driver of a Tajuna funeral car was changing a flat tire near the Iglesio Ni Kristo complex along Commonwealth Avenue at about 4 a.m. when the speeding taxi driven by Bautista rammed the back of the parked hearse.

The impact sent the cadaver flying out of the back of the car, where Bautista was apparently unable to avoid running over it with the taxi.

"Inaantok ’yung driver (The driver was sleepy)," remarked Gragatin.

The grieving son of the victim who was not identified reportedly told responding policemen about the bizarre fate of his father’s corpse.

"Paano to, sir? Patay na ang tatay ko, pinatay pa (How about that, sir? My father was dead, and they killed him again)," Gragatin quoted the son as saying.<