THE prime mover driver, who rammed eight vehicles inside the South Road Property (SRP) tunnel on Wednesday, will face multiple charges.
Multiple physical injuries and multiple damage to property charges are being readied against the prime mover driver Joy Tulag, said PO3 Chady Jungoy, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) traffic investigator in a phone interview on Thursday.
“Base sa atong follow up investigation, naa g’yud negligence sa part sa driver (Tulag) (Based on our follow up investigation, there was negligence on the part of Tulag),” Jungoy said.
Traffic enforcers saw the prime mover driven by Tulag stop by the SRP viaduct but later the vehicle continued on his trip.
Jungoy said that the prime mover driver should have checked his brakes before he continued on his trip.
“Plus the fact that there is a blind curve (in SRP tunnel) going to the North,” said Jungoy.
On Wednesday afternoon, Tulag lost his brakes and collided with other vehicles while traversing the SRP tunnel.
The collision created a domino effect and affected eight more vehicles that were all northbound or heading to Cebu City.
It started with the prime-mover hitting the taxicab on its front.
The taxi then bumped the ten-wheeler truck, in turn, rammed into an L300 van that also hit the Honda City on its front.
The Honda City, on the other hand, rammed into another 10-wheeler truck.
The L300 van on the left side of the prime- mover was also hit which then rammed into a Mitsubishi Montero Sports vehicle.
A motorcycle, which was beside the taxi, was likewise hit as well as a Nissan Navara although the pickup only sustained a scratch.
The collision hurt 12 persons. The driver of taxi Henry Quita, L300 driver Julie Linawan and Honda City driver Kathleen Gullen were rushed to hospitals and were on critical conditions on Wednesday evening.
“Ato silang gi-check wala na sila sa critical condition (on Thursday morning). Kadtong ubang minor injuries naka gawas na sad sa hospital (We checked the condition of the victims and they are now out of a critical situation. The others who sustained minor injuries were also discharged from hospital),” Jungoy said.
Tulag was detained at the Fuente Police Station pending the filing of charges.