2 graduating high school students killed as car careens off road in Cebu town
CEBU CITY– Two graduating high school students were killed while four others were badly injured on Thursday afternoon in a vehicular accident at a town in Cebu.
The accident at Barangay (village) Poblacion, Boljoon town, about 103 kilometers south of here, claimed the lives of
Judy Ann Lomera, 17, a resident of the village, who died on the spot from severe head injuries, and Christy Marie Estella, 18, who died at the hospital in Cebu City in the evening.
Both were fourth year students at the Boljoon National High School and were supposed to graduate this March.
Wounded were Joanne Marie Romero, 16 and 4th year students at the Boljoon National High School; and Melissa Mendez, 14, her cousin Kynth Marie Mendez, 14 and Nice Ancheta, 15, all sophomore students of the same school.
The driver, Al-Dhinier Sanaani, 26 and a medical representative, was detained at the police detention cell pending the filing of reckless imprudence resulting to homicide and multiple physical charges.
Sanaani and Kristine Joyce Batucan, 26, both medical representatives of Menarini Philippines Inc., were heading home to Cebu City after delivering medicines in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental.
The car was owned by Batucan but Sanaani drove the vehicle because she was not feeling well.
Senior Police Officer 3 Roderick Roma, investigator at the Boljoon Police station, said the car was running at a speed of between 70 and 80 kilometers per hour when Sanaani suddenly realized that the vehicle was at the edge of the road and was only about two meters away from the right railings of Lusapon Bridge along the national highway.
Roma said Sanaani immediately swerved the vehicle to the left but the car hit the students who were walking home from school about 4 p.m.
The girls were thrown off the bridge and fell about 13 meters below. The car rammed into the railings and turned turtle.
Sanaani and Batucan suffered minor injuries.
Lomera, Romero and Estella landed on the boulder at the side of the river. The three other girls fell on the riverbank.
Lomera died on the spot. Most of the victims were unconscious when they were brought to the municipal health center before they were transferred to hospital in Cebu City.
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