Speeding car kills lady lawyer

Traffic officers from the Cebu Integrated Traffic Operations Management check the pickup truck that hit and killed lawyer Norma Garciano. (CDN PHOTO/ JUNJIE MENDOZA)

Another Cebu lawyer was killed yesterday less than 24 hours after noted lawyer Noel Archival was shot in Dalaguete.

Norma Garciano, 67 who was Archival’s batchmate in the 1991 bar exams, was killed after she was sideswiped by a Mistubishi Strada pickup truck driven by Junette July Yamyamin, 24, as she was crossing Escario St. in Cebu City.

Garciano had just attended mass at the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Parish along Escario Street around 6:30 a.m.

The impact threw Garciano to the opposite lane where she slammed into an oncoming Isuzu Highlander SUV driven by Wichel Tagalog.

Paramedics from the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation tried to revive the lawyer but failed in their resuscitating efforts. Garciano was the chief legal officer of the Cebu CFI Cooperative.

The driver of the pick-up truck did not stop after the accident. She later told traffic investigators she was not aware that she had hit somebody.

Yamyamin, a call center agent, was on her way home from the Cebu IT Park.

It was Yamyamin’s companion who told her that they had hit someone. Yamyamin admitted that she initially wanted to run away out of fear but later decided to go straight to the police station and turn herself in. A motorist who witnessed the accident went after Yamyamin’s truck. He flagged her down and t old her that she had hit a pedestrian.

She surrendered to the Fuente Police Station after going back to the accident site and seeing that Garciano was already dead.

“Wala gyud ko nakabantay nga nakabangga na ko kay sa tumoy man dapit sa car (I really did not notice hitting anybody). I felt an adrenaline rush. I wanted to stop but I can’t. I was trembling and out of control,” said Yamyamin.

A complaint for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide is expected to be filed against Yamyamin at the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office today.

Junette July Yamyamin, 24, driver of the pickup truck faces police investigation. (CDN PHOTO/ JUNJIE MENDOZA)

“Dili gyud to tinuyoan (It was unintentional). I will face the consequences,” she said, apologizing to the lawyer’s family.

Investigators called the attention of Tagalog, 28, after a witness said that another vehicle ran over the lawyer. Tagalog said they never saw the victim lying on the road in front of their vehicle.

Joy Tumulak, operation officer of City Traffic Operation Management (CITOM) said Tagalog stopped and surrendered to the police but was released after investigators found that his car did not hit Garciano as the lawyer’s body was thrown in their direction after the initial impact.