Boy dies after being hit by municipal ambulance in Samar

Sta. Rita town in Samar (Image from Google Maps)

TACLOBAN CITY — A 13-year-old boy was killed after he was hit by an municipal-owned ambulance while he was on the way to school in Santa Rita town, Samar province on Monday afternoon.

Ricardo Cajife, a Grade 7 student of the Tominamos Integrated School in Barangay Lupi, Sta. Rita, was bumped by an ambulance owned by the municipal government of San Isidro, Northern Samar.

He died on the spot.

The ambulance was on its way to the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) in Tacloban City with a patient who had suffered a stroke on board, said PO3 Randy Costelo, officer-on-case of the Sta. Rita Municipal Police Station, in a phone interview.

Costelo said the victim and three other students were crossing the street on their way to school at 1:05 p.m. when the ambulance, with plate number OW 7918, driven by Arnel Ompod, hit the boy who was thrown some distance away due to the strong impact.

The three other students were unharmed.

The 45-year old driver of the ambulance, whose blinkers were on, was now detained at the Sta. Rita Municipal Police Station who could face reckless imprudence resulting in homicide. /atm