Two killed, scores injured in Pontevedra road mishap
Two persons were killed and several others were injured last Thursday after a wayward cargo truck ploughed down a roadside store in Brgy. Yating, Pontevedra, Capiz.
The Pontevedra police identified the fatalities as Joemarie Bautista, 27, helper of a parked cargo truck and resident of President Roxas, Capiz and Jose Bolano, 64, of Pontevedra, Capiz.
Yating village chieftain Rogan Bedia said the head of Bautista was almost shattered when pinned down by the truck loaded with sand while Bolano was buying cigarettes and canned food in the said store when crushed to his sudden death.
The store owned by the Dequino family located in an elevated portion of the road was almost destroyed. The strong impact threw out the 60-year-old store owner Eliseo Dequino and his helper Rizel Bernales, and bystanders who were also injured.
Apart from the elder Dequino and Bernales, also injured were Angeline Develos, 24 and Francis Pacete, 22, both residents of Brgy. Yating, Pontevedra; Juanito Damayo, 57, of Barangay Poblacion, Pres. Roxas; Daniel Dinoro, 51, of Hda. Vizcaya, Pres. Roxas; and, two other unidentified helpers of the ill-fated cargo truck.
They were brought to the nearest hospital.
Bedia said the wayward truck nearly crushed a house on the roadside just after it sideswiped the parked cargo truck loaded with corn products before it plowed down the store.
Dequino’s son Dante said that before the freak incident, he alerted by-standers and nearby residents to watch out for the oncoming wayward truck that seemed to have lost its brake while negotiating the downward slope, but it was already too late for the victims.
Enrique Damayo, driver of the killer truck and a resident of Pres. Roxas, voluntarily surrendered to the Pontevedra Police station where he was ordered detained.
Three criminal charges ranging from reckless imprudence resulting to two counts of homicide, physical injuries and damage to properties have been slapped against him.*PNA
