Truck driver spared; drivers agree on deal

No charges were filed against the truck driver who caused the six-car pileup  outside the South Road Properties (SRP) tunnel  Friday afternoon.

Instead, the motorists who figured in the collision reached a “temporary agreement” to file damage reports with  Rosch-7, the private contractor  that employs 53-year-old truck driver Gildardo Barcial (not Parcial Gildardo as r reported here earlier).

Welfredo Caperida, investigator of the Cebu City Integrated Traffic Operations Management (Citom), said the motorists met with a representative of Rosch-7, a contractor of the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco), at the Citom office an hour after the accident which took place at 4 p.m.

“Ipa-estimate usa ilang damage, unya ug naa na sa ila, ilahang ihatag sa Rosch-7,” (The victims  involved were told to submit  to Rosch-7 the cost of damage they sustained,” Caperida said.

Since no complaint was filed, Barcial was not detained.  A settlement may be finalized tomorrow, Caperida said.

Among those who attended the meeting was the lawyer of 58-year-old Henson Go and his wife Norma, who were passengers in the Toyota Revo van that was hit in the rear by  Barcial’s boom truck.

The couple were confined at  Chong Hua Hospital for injuries.

Their driver, Pedro Dublin of barangay Subangdaku, Mandaue City was moved to the St. Vincent General Hospital at Osmeña Boulevard, Cebu City.

The van driver  and Henson Go, who sat in the front,  sustained injuries in the hands and feet while Norma injured her back.

Citom’s Caperida said drivers should observe the 60 kph speed limit at the SRP and the 40 kph speed limit inside the tunnel.

Last Friday, traffic aide Hector Arcenal said the truck driver was overspeeding as he emerged from the tunnel in Cebu City. He said the driver  failed to anticipate the vehicles up ahead  slowing down for the stop light at the South Osmeña road exit.

Barcial rear-ended a Toyota Revo, which then hit a black Mitsubishi Strada whose rear landed on the front hood of the red and silver SUV.

The collision also caused a Kia Spectra to crash into an L300 van which then hit a multi-cab. Correspondent  Bjorn Abraham Tabanera