Car swerves, kills worker

A car traveling along Beach Road in Chalan Kanoa plowed into a drainage construction site shortly before noon yesterday, killing a worker and injuring another.

Witnesses told Saipan Tribune that Marcillano Garcia, a Filipino mason at Vargas Corp., was working in the drainage when he was pinned to death by the white Toyota Camry.

Another worker, Bonifacio Dimaunahan, was only injured in the leg after he managed to jump out from the drainage area, witnesses said. He was brought to the Commonwealth Center.

The driver, described as an Oriental woman, was also taken to CHC for minor injuries.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Ken I. Concepcion said traffic police officers responded to the accident scene in front of Bank of Saipan at 11:50am.

Concepcion said the vehicle was heading north when it suddenly swerved to the right shoulder of the road and struck the construction worker, who was at that time standing inside the drainage hole, with the upper part of his body showing aboveground.

“The case is pending further investigation,” said Concepcion, adding that more details “will be released as soon as possible.”

Saipan Tribune, however, learned that Marcillano Garcia and his son, Samuel Garcia, Dimaunahan and another worker, were replacing the cover of the drainage along the shoulder of the highway.

The Toyota Camry swerved to the shoulder, rammed the construction sign and safety blocks before its two tires on the right side fell into the drainage.

Marcillano and Dimaunahan were in the drainage measuring about four feet deep and less than two feet wide.

Marcillano was pinned in the neck and chest by the front right tire at the end of the drainage.

Dimaunahan, who saw the incoming vehicle, jumped from the drainage. The car still struck his leg, witnesses said.

The car also struck the rear of the workers’ pickup truck that was parked in the area.

Samuel Garcia and the other worker were not injured because they were away from the drainage area.

Samuel Garcia, who was in tears, said he was resting when he suddenly saw the car fall into the drainage, hitting his father.

“My father had been working here on Saipan as a construction worker since 1987. I don’t know how to inform my mother back home because she has a heart ailment,” he said in Filipino.

The driver was also taken to CHC for minor injuries. She apparently told police that she lost control of her car because she tried to avoid another vehicle from hitting her car.

Marcillano Garcia is the fourth traffic fatality in the CNMI so far this year.

In February 2006, a teenaged girl died while her three passengers were injured during a car crash along a road in Marpi.

On Jan. 21, two women were killed after they were hit by a vehicle in separate incidents along 2 W Highway in Tanapag and Navy Hill.