ILOILO City – Two men died in a road crash in Barangay Poblacion, San Rafael, Iloilo on Thursday.
Jeffrey Buhayan was a 19-year-old resident of the village while Romy Rodriguez, 41, was from Barangay Catan-agan, San Enrique, Iloilo.
The crash happened at around 6:30 p.m.
Rodriguez was homebound on a motorcycle. He tried to overtake a tricycle but crashed against Buhayan whose motorcycle was running the opposite direction.
The crash victims died of head injuries.
Rodriguez’s back rider, Charles Nerry Hautea, survived but sustained injuries.
Iloilo province and city recorded the highest number of vehicular accidents in seven months this year.
Between January and August, there were a total of 4,550 vehicular cases in the region, data from the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) showed.
Iloilo City topped with 1,561 total cases and Iloilo province with 1,251.
Meanwhile, Negros Occidental had 608, Capiz – 564, Aklan – 199, Antique – 177, Bacolod City – 121, and Guimaras – 69.
What were the most common cases?
According to PRO-6 spokesperson, Police Lieutenant Colonel Arnel Solis, these included reckless imprudence resulting to damage to property with 2,482 cases; reckless imprudence resulting to physical injury with 1,817; and reckless imprudence resulting to homicide with 251.
However, Solis said the number of vehicular accidents in Region 6 was 23.36 percent down this year compared to the 5,937 recorded in the same period last year.
According to Solis, limitation of the movement of vehicles due to community quarantine restrictions attributed to the decline.
Other reasons included the implementation of enhanced managing police operations (EMPO), strict implementation of unit commanders of the national law and local ordinances, non-stop conduct of checkpoints and public information campaign on traffic laws, Solis said.
“We are calling on our police chiefs to intensify their traffic operations. For our drivers, kon pwede malikawan naton ang aksidente, likawan naton. We need to be careful in driving,” Solis said./PN
