ILOILO City – A couple died while three other people were injured when an ambulance and a sport utility vehicle collided Thursday along the circumferential road in Barangay Hibao-an Norte, Mandurriao district.
The casualties included a patient who was being transported on board the ambulance of the local government of San Miguel, Iloilo to a hospital in the city for a dialysis, police said.
The patient – Ramon Sampani, 54, of Barangay 15, San Miguel – was pronounced dead at the West Visayas State University Medical Center (WVSUMC) in Jaro district. His wife Rosalyn, also 54 years old, died at the Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao.
The couple sustained head and body injuries, police said.
Injured were Gilbert Ray Saclauso, 37, of Barangay San Antonio, San Miguel; ambulance driver Efrain de Guzman, 39, of San Miguel; and Eddie Vera, 51, of San Miguel Street, San Miguel.
Vera was confined at the Iloilo Doctors’ Hospital in Molo district while de Guzman was in the WVSUMC, police said. Saclauso was driving the SUV, a Chevrolet TrailBlazer.
The crash happened at around 4 a.m., initial investigation led by Police Officer 3 Toto Karl Petalco of the Mandurriao police station showed.
Saclauso overtook a pickup vehicle but failed to notice the incoming ambulance, Petalco said. “The SUV driver was driving very fast.”
Because of the impact, both vehicles skidded around 100 meters from the point of collision, Petalco added.
The information on which facility Ramon Sampani was supposed to undergo dialysis was not immediately available as of this writing.
Saclauso faces charges for reckless imprudence resulting to double homicide and physical injuries. After the treatment of his minor wounds, he was detained at the Mandurriao police station./PN
