AS a writer, newspaper editor, and college professor, journalist Lourdes “Chit” Estella Simbulan was at the height of her careers when a freak accident snuffed everything, ending a life well lived for both family, the media industry, the academe and the country. Malaya Business Insight (then Ang Pahayagang Malaya) was one of the broadsheets where Estella worked, along with several other newspapers. She was just 54 when she died.
The accident occurred on Don Mariano Marcos Ave., now called the Commonwealth Ave. in Quezon City during a short taxi ride from the University of the Philippines in Diliman to the UP Ayala Technohub, on May 13, 2011 or 13 years ago.
‘The judge said both drivers had a clear last chance of avoiding the accident if they had been driving at a reasonable speed and with care.’
Two speeding buses collided and pinned down the taxi in the tragic road crash, causing Simbulan’s death. Even before that accident, Commonwealth Avenue — this 12.4-kilometer stretch that connects Quezon Memorial Circle with Fairview — had already been referred to as the “Killer Highway” due to the number of road accidents there every week.
Commonwealth still is the killer highway. With its six to 18 lanes, Commonwealth is the widest thoroughfare in the country. Studies confirm that next to EDSA, Commonwealth is the meanest, having had 3,262 road crashes in 2021 with 2,453 damaging property, 13 fatal, and 796 non-fatal.
We remember Chit Estella today because a Quezon City court released its decision on April 22, nearly 13 years after it occurred.
The Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) has convicted two bus drivers and ordered their bus companies to pay P7.46 million in damages for the wrongful death of Simbulan.
RTC Judge Ralph Lee of Branch 83, in a nine-page decision, sentenced bus drivers Daniel Espinosa and Victor Ancheta to imprisonment of two years, four months and one day for causing Simbulan’s death.
The court also ordered bus companies Universal Guiding Star Bus Line Corp. and Nova Auto Transport Bus Corp. to pay her family 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, a journalism professor at the UP College of Mass Communications, was on board a taxi en route to the UP Ayala Technohub on May 13, 2011, for a reunion with high school classmates when her taxi was hit twice by the buses driven by Ancheta and Espinosa.
The court noted that Ancheta’s was “recklessly driven” while Espinosa’s was travelling at a “fast pace,” resulting in the accident. The judge said both drivers had a clear last chance of avoiding the accident if they had been driving at a reasonable speed and with 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 said.
As we remember Chit’s tragic end, the grief is somehow assuaged by the fact that her death led to the imposition of the 60-km-per-hour speed limit along Commonwealth. Later, a whole lane was devoted to motorcycles which have stolen from traditional jeepneys the notorious title of “king of the road.” Riders usually zoom past you from left and right without regard to traffic rules so that no day passes that there are at least 10 accidents involving riders of these two-wheel terrors in Metro Manila.
