BUTUAN, PHILIPPINES – A cargo truck hit a passenger van on the national highway in Antipas, Cotabato, past noon Monday, killing at least 17 people.
Police Maj. Godofredo Tupas II, Antipas municipal police station chief, said the accident occurred in Purok 2, Barangay Luhong, Antipas, at 12:48 p.m., killing about 15 passengers and the driver of the Toyota Hiace van when it caught fire during the accident.
A passing motorbike was also torched after it got involved in the collision, and its driver burned to death, according to Tupas.
The HOWO cargo truck, a heavy-duty vehicle with license plate MAD 8703, was loaded with sand and gravel when the driver, Dumapias Nasiad, 50, of Digos City, lost control of the truck’s steering wheel and rammed the Hiace van (MWB911), driven by Mark Anthony Bunda.
Bunda and his passengers were trapped inside the vehicle when the van flipped twice, plunged into a drainage canal, and burst into flames.
“We are still investigating what triggered the collision; so far, 17 are confirmed dead,” Tupas told the Inquirer on Monday afternoon.
“The area is accident prone,” said Castro Verdeblanco, head of the Antipas municipal disaster risk reduction and management council.
Among the fatalities was a child who was thrown out of the van and later expired in the hospital, police investigators said.
As of 6:10 p.m. on Monday, the municipality’s police investigators were still piecing together the incident details and could not say if there were survivors in the accident.
From the opposite direction, the dump truck slammed the passenger van on the slippery road in Barangay Luhong as it departed Antipas town’s terminal on its route to Kidapawan City, Cotabato’s provincial capital.
The accident site was about 10 kilometers from the town’s bus terminal.
Nasiad, the dump truck driver, was traveling with his helper, Wilmark Josil Panoy, 27, and a passenger named Gregorio Wallace Casiño. Police investigators have yet to say if they were injured or were unharmed.
Most of the van passengers were still to be identified as their remains were badly burned, according to police investigators.
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