BY VINCE JACOB VISAYA
GONZAGA, Cagayan (December 5)—Four people died and seven others were injured in a three-car collision involving a sports utility vehicle, a tricycle, and a kolong-kolong (improvised tricycle) at the national road in Barangay Ipil in this town in Gonzaga on December 3 at 9:30 in the evening, police said.
Lt. Orlan Capili, Gonzaga deputy police chief, said fatalities, kolong-kolong driver Donato Barsatan and Velvet Geron were declared on arrival at the APEM Hospital in this town while Marinet Barsatan died while being treated in the said hospital.
Another fatality, seven-year-old Prince Barsatan, died at a separate private hospital. The fatalities, all relatives with each other, rode the kolong-kolong tricycle.
The SUV driver, Rodolfo Batin, 56, of Quezon town in Isabela did not notice the one-way signage and the sudden stoppage of the tricycle to accommodate an incoming car on the one-way road.
As a result, the SUV rammed the overloaded tricycle, which also slammed onto the kolong-kolong with four occupants.
The impact threw away some occupants who fell below the bridge and slammed onto the earth.
Batin gave up himself to the police while a case is being readied against him for reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicides, multiple physical injuries, and property damage.