Two dead, four injured in road mishaps

By Glazyl Y. Masculino

BACOLOD City – Two persons died, while four others were wounded after they figured in separate road accidents in Negros Occidental last Wednesday.

In San Carlos City, Jesse Auditor, 26, of Barangay Nataban was killed after he was run over by a wing van truck at Sitio Katiclan, Barangay Rizal.

Police Lieutenant Colonel Jesus Mesahon Jr., city police chief, said Auditor was riding a motorcycle driven by his younger brother Alex, 23, when they hit the left side of the truck loaded with frozen products.

Mesahon said the Auditor brothers were tailing the truck on their way home when they overtook the vehicle while approaching the curve part of the road.

However, the brothers saw a car approaching on the opposite lane, prompting them to return to their lane, causing them to hit the truck.

Auditor fell from the motorcycle and was run over by the rear part of the truck while his younger brother was unharmed, Mesahon said.

The accident happened while the truck was on its way to Bacolod after it failed to travel to Cebu due to a travel suspension brought about by heavy rains.

Mesahon said the truck driver was released from police custody following an initial settlement with the victim’s family.

Meanwhile, in Hinigaran town, Jennybert Eliver, 31, of Barangay Santo Rosario, Binalbagan town, died after his sports utility vehicle (SUV) crashed into a Ceres Liner bus in Kalaparan, Barangay Pilar.

Staff Sgt. Vedianold Peñalber, traffic investigator of Hinigaran Municipal Police Station, said the SUV was on its way to Hinigaran town to fetch his live-in partner when the accident happened.

Peñalber said that some witnesses saw the SUV already swerving before it encroached the opposite lane and collided with the bus and eventually fell in a sugarcane field.

The victim was declared dead at a hospital.

Peñalber said the bus driver and three of the eight passengers suffered minor injuries.

They were on their way to Kabankalan City, he added.

Peñalber said they could not tell yet the cause of the accident since the victim was just alone in the SUV. He said that a doctor did not smell alcohol from the victim.

He said there was already an initial settlement between the two parties, thus the bus driver will be released from police custody after the lapse of the 18-hour reglementary detention.