COTABATO CITY — Two individuals died while five others were badly injured in a highway accident in Quezon town in Bukidnon on Monday.
The accident involved a refrigerated truck full of frozen fish that rammed a van and a motorcycle into a roadside ravine.
Senior officials of the Bukidnon Provincial Police Office and the Police Regional Office-10 told reporters on Tuesday that Mohammad Exan Bola, 53, of Marawi City in Lanao del Sur, and the 26-year-old Jayser Pendorat Bautil, a resident of Barangay Kalilangan in Pantar, Lanao del Norte, were declared dead on arrival.
An initial report from the Quezon Municipal Police Station released to reporters early Tuesday stated that the driver of the refrigerated light truck lost control of the wheel when its brakes malfunctioned while maneuvering through a steep, downhill stretch of a highway in Barangay Palacapao in Quezon and hit a motorcycle and an L300 van ahead.
Witnesses had told police investigators who responded to the incident that all three vehicles that figured in the accident repeatedly rolled and landed in an open field about 50 meters down.
Mr. Bautil was a helper of the driver of the refrigerated truck, bearing license plates ZAD 6080, driven by the 45-year-old Solaiman Baco Moctar, of Digos City in Davao del Sur.
The road mishap left five others, including Moctar, the driver of the L300 van and the motorist, badly injured.
Police investigators and barangay officials have confirmed to reporters that the right arm of one of the victims got severed from the shoulder and was found in a grassy spot several meters away. — John Felix M. Unson