Ambulance rams Cagayan town post, rescue chief dies

By Vince Jacob Visaya

SANCHEZ MIRA, Cagayan -- The 32-year-old chief of the Sanchez Mira rescue station was killed and three others were wounded when their emergency ambulance turned turtle and rammed into a concrete post along the national highway in Barangay Callungan here on Sunday, a belated police report said.
    Killed was John Leo Fuertes, a 32-year-old registered nurse and the station head of LGU-Task Force Lingkod Cagayan-Sanchez Mira, who drove the rescue vehicle to pick up more victims from an earlier car crash.
    Wounded were Roger Balanay, 54, of Sta. Praxedes town; a certain Flordelino, 42, and a certain John, 29, of Sanchez Mira town.
    Fuertes and his rescue group were responding to a road accident involving a sports utility vehicle and a motorcycle in Centro Dos.
    The first responders were on their way back to the crash site to fetch two more crash victims when Fuertes did not notice a kolong-kolong (motorcycle with a sidecar) in front of them. As he tried to evade the improvised tricycle, the ambulance turned upside down and rammed into a concrete post.