A remorseful Ricafort Gamboa was recklessly driving the car that crashed killing his friend Ernest Pideli. SOUTH WALES POLICE
MANCHESTER, UK — This week a speeding driver was sentenced to four year in prison for manslaughter after causing a crash last year that killed 18-year-old Ernest Pideli, a British-Filipino teen from Stretford.
Pideli was reportedly a talented footballer who aspired to one day play for the Philippine national team, Azkals.
Domino’s pizza shift manager Ricafort Gamboa, 25, from Bolton, was trying to reach 100 mph while being filmed by his passengers on Snapchat when he lost control of the car and smashed into a wall.
Philippine-born Gamboa raced along country roads near Aberystwyth, showing off for social media before his Citroen C3 swerved off the road and collided with a 16-inch thick stone wall.
Car crash fatality Ernest Pideli aspired to join the Philippine national soccer team Azkals. WEBSITE
The accident killed Pideli and injured two others, Swansea Crown Court was told.
Prosecutor Paul Hobson said the group had been returning to Greater Manchester after holidaying at a caravan site in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, on July 15 last year.
Phone footage
In a recovered mobile phone footage, Gamboa’s friends could be heard egging him on to drive faster, which is when Gamboa began to cut corners on the wrong side of the road.
Gamboa was recorded saying: “I am going fast, I will go faster.”
But as the car sped downhill towards a series of tight corners, Gamboa was heard saying “oh s***” as the car fishtailed, hit a bank, and skidded across the road before ramming into a cottage beside the A487 motorway at Chancery, south of Aberystwyth.
The stone wall outside the cottage was demolished by the car, which had been going faster than 90 mph.
Four days later, Pideli died from fatal head and neck injuries.
Loss and remorse
Gamboa admitted to causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving: “I take full responsibility for what happened. My stupid decision to drive so fast was ‘cause of the collision.I deserve to be punished. I am deeply sorry for what happened.”
Charles Row, Gamboa’s barrister, said that Gamboa was so remorseful that he said he wished he had been the one killed, rather than Pideli.
Gamboa, who wept during his sentencing, was told by Judge Keith Thomas that he had abused the road as a racetrack: “You drove at breakneck speed saying you were trying to reach 100 mph. And you ignored signs telling you to slow down and that there were bends ahead.”
The judge added: “Your friend was only 18 and had his whole life in front of him. You have caused incalculable loss to his family.”
Upon his release from prison, Gamboa will be banned from driving for five years.