5-vehicle smash up kills one

By Juan Escandor Jr. CALABANGA, Camarines Sur --- One died and 11 others were injured and rushed to the hospital after an SUV Chevrolet sideswiped a motorcycle and then collided head-on with a tricycle and made two other motorcycles behind it rammed forward in Sitio La Purisima of Barangay Quipayo, this town, last Jan. 6. SPO2 Roderick Macawili, case investigator, identified the victim Seth Coballes, 42, the tricycle driver, as the lone fatality who was pronounced dead on arrival in the hospital. Macawili said the passengers of the tricycle who were injured and rushed to the hospital in Naga City included Genevieve Padron, 41; Efren Navarro Sr., 62; Efren Navarro Jr., 27; Ariel Belasa, 37; and Wilma Panuelos, 59. He said Mark Gil Gesmundo, 30; and Aldrin Froyalde, 20; both riding in separate motorcycles were also injured. Macawili said Loto Serrado who was driving a motorcycle and his back-riders Jorelyn Mae Escares, 29; and Dyane Tyrone Serrado, 5, were all injured, too. Macawili said the driver of the SUV Chevrolet, identified as Rommel Velarde, 29, a medical intern at the Bicol Medical Center in Naga City, was also injured in the 5-vehicle road accident. He said the Calabanga police received a call from the Municipal Police Station in the neighboring town of Bombon about the vehicular accident at past 5 p.m. last Saturday along a bridge of the village of La Purisima, Quipayo. Macawili said the police investigation showed that the white SUV while cruising the road going south from Tinambac town to Naga City encroached the left lane where the tricycle and three motorcycles were running towards the north going to Calabanga town. He said the SUV Chevrolet first sideswiped the motorcycle driven by Gesmundo, and then it collided head-on with the approaching motorcycle driven by Coballes with five passengers. Macawili said upon collision with the SUV Chevrolet, two other motorcycles behind the tricycle which were driven by Serrado and Froyalde rammed forward to the SUV Chevrolet. He said the victims of the accident were immediately rushed to Mother Seton Hospital and Bicol Medical Center in Naga City by the ambulances of the towns of Bombon and Calabanga.