Driver in hit-and-run mishap in QC identified

The determination of the family of a hit-and-run victim in Novaliches, Quezon City, has paid off.

The family of Edwin de Mesa, 49, a resident of Greenheights Subdivision in Novaliches, Quezon City, told the Inquirer Wednesday that they had identified the driver of the van that struck him last month as Allan Muñoz.

Muñoz, a Magnolia products agent, is a resident of Araceli street in Novaliches.

On May 27, De Mesa had just alighted from a bus on Quirino Highway on his way home from work when he was hit by a speeding white Suzuki APV van, De Mesa’s mother, Luzviminda, told the Inquirer in an interview at the Quezon City Police District’s Traffic Enforcement Unit.

The impact hurled De Mesa onto the opposite lane where he was hit by a taxi cab whose driver gave himself up to the police.

De Mesa died due to a cracked skull, his niece Arianne said.

Witnesses told the family that the white van’s license plate was POC 954 and that it had the word “Magnolia” printed on the sides.

A check with the Land Transportation Office and San Miguel Corp. office in Ortigas showed that Muñoz was the driver of the vehicle at the time of the accident, prompting the filing of charges of reckless imprudence resulting in homicide and abandonment against him.