Biker sans helmet or license harms enforcer

A motorcycle driver who hit a traffic enforcer at a checkpoint in Barangay Maguikay, Mandaue City will face several complaints.

Ian Atillo, 31, was detained in Mandaue Police Station 4 after he ran over Cresencio Balili, 49, a traffic enforcer of the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team). Balili’s injuries were said to be severe.

Glenn Antigua, chief for operations of Team, said that Balili had just issued a citation ticket to another traffic violator on M.L. Quezon Highway when Atillo hit him around 8 p.m. last Monday.

Before hitting Balili, Atillo had been flagged down by another traffic enforcer because he wasn’t wearing a helmet and his motorcycle’s headlight was off.

But instead of heeding the traffic enforcer’s signal, Antigua said, Atillo drove faster and tried to escape. He ended up hitting Balili. Security camera footage from the Bantay Mandaue Command Center showed Balili getting knocked off his feet, then hitting his midsection and then his head when he hit the ground. The impact left him unconscious.

He was immediately brought to Chong Hua Hospital in Mandaue.

As of yesterday, Antigua said, Balili was transferred to a private room and was waiting for the result of a CT scan.

Team later found out that Atillo did not have a driver’s license.

Antigua said that Atillo’s traffic violations included reckless driving, disregarding a traffic enforcer, driving without a helmet and driving without a driver’s license. Criminal complaints will be filed against him.

Footage aired by ABS-CBN Cebu showed that Atillo was detained but refused to answer questions from journalists who tried to ask him why he did what he did.

Traffic enforcers in the cities of Mandaue and Cebu have been cracking down on road violations, including counter-flowing.

Mandaue City Mayor Gabriel Luis Quisumbing shared the video captured by the closed- circuit television camera in his Facebook page.

“To the person that ran over my traffic enforcer and tried to run away, consider yourself very lucky that the police got you before I did. They’re much kinder than I would have been,” the mayor’s post read.

Traffic enforcers said that Ian Atillo, 31, also didn’t have his headlight on during the incident.