Five incidents left seven people dead and three injured in various areas in Negros Oriental over the weekend.
On Friday, Aug. 18 a white Mitsubishi Pajero hit a car and a motorcycle close to midnight along the north Boulevard in barangay Bantayan.
The injured motorcyclist was identifed as businessman Gabby del Prado. He suffered a broken wrist, a broken leg, and had a wound that required several stitches. He has been declared out of danger by attending physicians at the Silliman University Medical Center.
Police said the driver of the Pajero, Engr. Kevin Zerna, was detained for about 12 hours.
The next day, Saturday, the police reported another vehicular accident at around 4:30 a.m. at the intersection of Hibbard and E.J. Blanco Road in barangay Piapi. The victim, college student Adrian Jake Gallena, was pronounced dead on arrival at SUMC.
The police report said a pickup truck was traveling from west to east at E.J. Blanco Road while the motorist was heading in the opposite direction. Upon reaching the intersection, the driver of the pickup truck said he was bumped by the motorcycle driven by Gallena.
At around 5:50 a.m. early Saturday morning, a gunman on a bicycle shot and killed a motorcycle-riding still-unidentified man at the entrance of Amigo Subd. in barangay Piapi.
A responding policeman, PSMS Rolando Jamosmos, was also hit by the gunman in the abdomen but is now out of danger, and recuperating at a local hospital.
The suspected gunman, a certain Inting Celestial, was captured by responding policemen.
Later that Saturday morning at around 9:20 a.m., a fuel tanker traveling south hit a tricycle along the national highway in the town of Bacong, killing the tricycle’s four passengers.
Police identified the dead as Analie Pascual, Ruel Pascual, their daughter Shelly Pascual, and another passenger identified as Meliton Blanco. Another person, identified as Wilson Kial, was reported injured.
The driver of the fuel tanker claimed that his left front tire blew up, causing him to swerve to the left, and hit the tricycle. He surrendered to the Bacong Police.
By Saturday afternoon, a 40-year-old male from Dumaguete drowned along the shores of Dauin town.
The victim, Nino Jay Caro, was found unconscious in the Dauin shore. Rescuers tried to revive him, and transported him to Dumaguete on board an ambulance. He was declared dead on arrival. (AP)
