"The driver was following the orders from his navigation system and even though there was a sufficient number of warnings and barricades, he continued his journey into the construction site," a police spokeswoman told Reuters.
"His trip finally ended when he wound up crashing into a pile of sand," she added.
The driver and his wife escaped uninjured from the collision, which occurred on a motorway near Hamburg.
Junio achieved what many grown-ups could not.
In nearly two hours, he swam 6 kilometers to cross the 3-km channel because he was swept away from the route by strong currents.
Hundreds of cheering Cebuanos watched the event on ferryboats that delayed their departures, on vessels under repair and maintenance at the Ouano wharf, and on the Mandaue-Mactan bridge.
They were not disappointed as they witnessed the youngest person to ever cross the channel.
“We are very happy that he made it. Ever since, we were confident that he would make it because he loves the water so much and it was his desire to cross the channel,” retired Air Force Colonel Florencio Junio said after his son emerged from the water.
Junio showed no sign of fatigue and stress while his mother, Ma. Vilena, 50, held him as cameras clicked. Asked by reporters if he was tired, he shook his head. He drank a glass of chocolate milk before he was driven to his hotel where a medical team examined him.
“I’m very proud of him. I was excited and nervous, but I knew he could do it,” Junio’s mother said.
Junio was supposed to start swimming at 7 a.m. from the ferryboat terminal in Lapu-Lapu City across from the Ouano wharf in Mandaue together with his coach, Master Sergeant Jairulla Jaitulla, and four frogmen from the Philippine Navy.
But this was delayed by 37 minutes because of the media frenzy. The boy went to the rear of a ferryboat, played with its steering wheel for a while, then jumped into the water without waiting for the cue from his father or organizers of the event.
Junio, along with his coach and the escorting Navy men, reached the Ouano wharf in roughly 20 minutes.
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Published on page A1 of the October 9, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
