1 killed, 10 hurt in Maharlika Highway accidents

LUCENA CITY–A Manila-bound Naga City businessman accidentally killed a tricycle passenger in a road accident in Lopez, Quezon province, just minutes before the Noche Buena celebration and injured several others as he tried to flee the scene, police said.

Superintendent Edcille Canals, Lopez police station chief, said at 11:55 p.m. of Dec. 24, Luis Centenera, 37, was traveling along the Maharlika Highway in Barangay Jongo aboard a Mitsubishi Adventure (EBS-940) when he hit two tricycles in a row.

A passenger of one of the tricycles, Gertrudes Batanes, was thrown out of the vehicle upon impact and was consequently ran over by Centenera’s car, said Canals.

Batanes was declared dead on arrival at the hospital, Canals said.

After the collision, Centenera tried to escape and subsequently hit five other vehicles along the way that included two more tricycles and three sport utility vehicles.

A Lopez mobile patrol vehicle gave chase until the escaping Centenera was stopped in a road barricade set up by policemen in the nearby town of Gumaca.

All in all, ten other persons, passengers and drivers of seven vehicles, sustained various degrees of injuries, police report said.

During investigation, Centenera’s teenage son who was traveling with his father told policemen that he had been trying to stop his father after the latter also got involved in a prior accident in Calauag town.

According to the son, Centenera, who is into upholstery business, was having a family problem, Canals said in a phone interview.

Centenera was now held at the Lopez police jail, Canals said.

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