COTABATO CITY—Five persons died while six others were wounded after the sugarcane truck hauler they were riding fell off a bridge Wednesday in Aleosan, North Cotabato.
Police Sr. Insp. Edwin Abantes, Aleosan police chief, identified the casualties in the 5:20 p.m. incident as truck driver Anwar Ampatuan, 35; George Dimalakit, 60; Anliva Frido; and two other unidentified sugarcane field workers.
Six other workers who rode on top of the ill-fated sugarcane-laden truck were injured. Abantes said the truck, which was moving fast, went wayward at a downward curve and hit the steel railing of the bridge in Barangay New Leon, causing it to tumble and fall over some 10 meters down.
“The impact was so strong that it also sent the truck riders over the bridge,” Abantes said.
In his hospital bed, Fahad Mato, a survivor, revealed that the vehicle’s brakes malfunctioned prior to the crash.
At about the same time in another incident, a motorcycle rider also died in a collision with a speeding passenger van in Barangay Rebuken, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao.
Insp. Maria Carolina Flores, Sultan Kudarat deputy police chief, identified the victim as Muslimin Isla, a resident of Barangay Salimbao in the area. He died on the spot.
Flores said the passenger van driven by Manny Macabuat, of Picong, Lanao del Sur, hit head-on the motorbike of Isla as the former was overtaking another vehicle along the highway.
Feared of being mobbed by locals, Macabuat sped off and later abandoned his vehicle and passengers in nearby Barangay Macaguiling. Flores said they expect Macabuat to surface soon as he has been sending surrender feelers through his relatives. (PNA)
