Poll officer’s car hits 2 runners

A COUPLE joining a regional foot race was wounded after they were rear-ended by a vehicle driven by a provincial election officer on N. Bacalso Ave., Barangay Mambaling, Cebu City yesterday morning.

SPO4 Nelson Jayme, chief investigator of Cebu City Police Office’s Traffic Section, identified the victims as Peter Gonzales, 42, and his wife Sandra, 32, of Pasig City, Manila.

Atty. Ferdinand Gujilde, of the Commission on Elections (Comelec), was held by the police after the incident at the station where the two parties tried to reach an amicable settlement.

Jayme said the accident happened at 6:25 a.m. while the victims were on the road along with thousands of participants of the Timex 2012 Run Cebu.

Suddenly, the two triathletes were hit by a Kia Rio Sedan (YKP-549) driven by Gujilde, a resident of Minglanilla, Cebu.

Safe

The victims were thrown off while the car’s windshield was broken. The couple was rushed to Chong Hua Hospital where doctors declared them safe.

Jayme said Gujilde was subjected to a liquor test to find out if he was driving under the influence of alcohol. The result will be released today.

“Nakatagpilaw kuno siya (He reportedly dozed off while driving),” Jayme said.

No comment

Sun.Star Cebu caught up with Gujilde inside the City Traffic Operations and Management (Citom) office and tried to interview him but he declined to comment.

“Let’s leave it to the investigators,” he said.

Veteran marathoner Jose Mari Colmenares, who was tailing the victims during the run, shared how it happened.

In a phone interview, he said Gujilde was driving fast when he hit the victims. He said Gujilde just left the couple on the road.

He said a traffic enforcer stopped Gujilde under the Mambaling flyover, about 200 meters away from the accident site.

“He almost hit other runners too,” Colmenares said in Cebuano.