EDITORIAL
In the prime of her life and still enjoying the peak of her newspapering and teaching careers, Lourdes "Chit" Estella-Simbulan met her death in what is now considered as the "death highway" – the Congressional Ave. in Diliman, Quezon City.
The road crash happened on May 13, 2011 and now, exactly 13 years to the day of her death, the newspapers that she edited and read and worked for are recalling that accident.
It's because the court has finally ruled on the case, with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) establishing the guilt of two bus drivers involved in the accident.
The court also ordered their bus companies to pay P7.46 million in damages for the wrongful death of Chit Estella, who worked as editor in Malaya Business Insight, editor in chief of the Manila Times and reporter of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. After all, Stella was a rising star in the field of journalism and media, especially during the period immediately after the People Power Revolution that installed Cory Aquino to the presidency.
RTC Judge Ralph Lee of Branch 83 in a nine-page decision, dated April 22, sentenced bus drivers Daniel Espinosa and Victor Ancheta to imprisonment of two years, four months and one day for causing the death of Estella-Simbulan in a collision at Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City on May 13, 2011.
The QC court also ordered Universal Guiding Star Bus Line Corp. and Nova Auto Transport Bus Corp., the bus companies involved in the road crash, to pay the family of Estella-Simbulan P7.46 million in damages in consideration of the insolvency of the two bus drivers. She was married to University of the Philippines professor Roland Simbulan.
Estella-Simbulan, then 54 and a journalism professor at the UP College of Mass Communications, was onboard a taxi en route to the UP Ayala Technohub on May 13, 2011, when the vehicle she was riding was hit twice by the buses driven by Ancheta and Espinosa.
Stella was then on her way to attend a social gathering with former classmates when the unexpected happened.
The court noted that the bus of Ancheta was “recklessly driven” while Espinosa’s was travelling at a “fast pace” resulting into the accident.
The judge ruled that both Espinosa and Ancheta had a “clear last chance” to avoid the accident if they had been driving at a “reasonable rate of speed” and with “extraordinary care.”
“Both accused had the last chance to avoid the collision had they exercised reasonable care and precaution in driving their respective buses. Both of the accused being public utility drivers should have primary concern not just for their safety but also to their passengers and fellow motorists,” the decision read.
Estella might have left a mark in the field of journalism and media but her important legacy is the changes in traffic rules on Commonwealth Avenue. Now, the speed limit along the avenue is 60 kilometers per hour and motorcycles have their own lane from UP to Fairview, although the "camotes" are still at it, violating the rules whenever they can.
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