Sunday, October 02, 2005
3 killed in van, motorcycle crash; Belgian to be charged
By Syril G. Repe and Maricar Aranas
THE Dumaguete City police urged the families of the three fatalities in the Wednesday evening collision in Barangay Banilad to file charges against the Belgian national who drove the van that collided with the victims' motorcycle.
Inspector Manuel Hidalgo said the families of victims Ray Flores, 37, single of Banilad, Valeriano Mayola, 29, single of Real Street, Daro, and Santiago Alcoran, 35, married of Upper San Jose, Banilad all in Dumaguete City should charge Patrick Edward Maria Taes, 34, a Belgian and married of Masaplor Sur, Dauin, Negros Oriental for their death.
Hidalgo said Taes could be liable before the law for reckless imprudence resulting to multiple homicide.
The Belgian national was, as of Friday, recuperating from injuries at Holy Child Hospital in Dumaguete City. Taes refused to talk to reporters in his hospital room.
Based on police report, before the incident, Taes was driving drunk his Hyundai Grace van just after 1 a.m. Wednesday hit a parked motorcycle as he was leaving a night bar.
Police investigator Senior Police Officer 4 George Ynzon said passing by Barangay Tinago, the van again hit a private gate.
A complaint from the owner of the house brought the police to Tinago but found Taes already gone.
Some 30 minutes after, the police station received a report of a motorcycle and van collision at the city's boundary in Bacong.
On arriving, police found the bloody scene with the motorcycle smashed on the national highway and the van almost overturned on a roadside ditch.
By then Flores, Mayola, and Alcoran were dead and Taes injured. The Belgian national was rushed to Holy Child Hospital for treatment.
SPO4 Ynzon said based on investigation, the three men on board a motorcycle were going home after attending a feast in Barangay San Miguel, Bacong on the eve of the village fiesta.
On reaching the city limit, they met the van and crashed head on, the impact dragging their motorcycle meters away from the scene and throwing the three men into the asphalt road, causing their instant death.
(October 2, 2005 issue)
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