5-year-old girl killed, 2 others hurt as truck rams eatery

MANILA, Philippines–A five-year-old girl was killed while two other people were injured on Sunday night after they were hit by a 10-wheel fuel truck refilling gas pumps at a gasoline station in Pasig City.

According to a witness, the driver of the truck, Junval Oriona Merene, told authorities that he failed to engage the vehicle’s hand brake while the air brake was not working. When Merene removed the piece of wood he had placed under one of the truck tires, the vehicle moved forward, crossed the road and rammed the eatery where the victims were.

The driver was later mauled by bystanders who witnessed the accident. He was arrested and remains detained at the Pasig City Police Station where, case investigator PO3 Randy Tedera said, they were preparing to charge him with reckless imprudence resulting in homicide and physical injuries.

Five-year-old Joeylyn Beraña, whose mother owned a nearby retail store, died on the spot due to head injuries. She was at the eatery to ask her neighbor, Danilo Bumagat, 41, to teach her to use the computer tablet her parents had just given her.

The accident happened at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday on Dr. Sixto Antonio Avenue in Barangay Caniogan, Pasig City.

The eatery owner, Nerissa Montefero, 66, suffered minor bruises while Bumagat sustained multiple fractures in his arms and legs. He remains confined at Rizal Medical Center where doctors were set to operate on his limbs.

Montefero told the Inquirer that before the accident, she was drinking coffee and seated at a table beside Beraña and Bumagat. She said that she saw the truck crossing the road toward them. When it hit them, the table they were seated at toppled and they were pinned underneath, she added. She then lost consciousness.

Jesus Valdez, a resident who witnessed the accident, told the Inquirer that the truck driver was filling up the gas pumps at the Metro Oil gasoline station. He added that he saw the driver remove a piece of wood he had placed in front of the vehicle’s tires when he saw that the fuel hose was too short to reach one of the gas pumps.

The vehicle, however, started moving forward on its own. Valdez said the driver tried to climb into the truck to step on the brakes but could not open the door.

The victims were taken by bystanders to separate hospitals. Beraña was brought to Immaculate Conception Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Her neighbor, Gina Delgado, 41, described the young girl as a sweet girl who loved to make loom bands. She even gave one to Montefero who had just celebrated her birthday, Delgado told the Inquirer.

She added that the girl’s parents were about to get married and Beraña had asked them for cream-colored sandals because she was to be the flower girl at their wedding later this year.

The girl’s father was away at the time of the accident while her mother was tending to their store nearby. She had left her daughter in Montefero’s care because the young girl wanted to ask Bumagat to teach her how to use her new tablet.