SUV driver in fatal hit-and-run surrenders

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – The driver of a sports utility vehicle (SUV) surrendered to the police two days after he figured in a hit-and-run accident that killed a motorcycle rider along Circumferential Road in Barangay Bata here on Nov 15, 2021.

Major Richard Fajarito, head of Police Station 3, said the 36-year-old driver of a Toyota Fortuner surfaced at the police station around 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Police did not name the suspect.

Based on the investigation of the police, the SUV hit the rear part of a motorcycle driven by Giovanni Padua, 52, of Talisay City, Negros Occidental.

But the SUV driver claimed that the motorcycle had no taillight and the area was somehow dark which resulted in him failing to see Padua, Fajarito said.

Fajarito said that based on the statement of the SUV driver, bystanders immediately went to the scene when the accident happened, prompting him to drive away for fear of being lynched or manhandled.

Fajarito said the SUV driver had already reached out to the victim’s family even before he surrendered to the authorities.

Police are waiting for both parties to meet to decide on the matter – whether to file charges against the SUV driver or amicably settle the incident.