TEN persons, including two infants, were injured after they fell off the left side of the dump truck they rode on after they reached an intersection in barangays Tubod and Banhigan, Badian town, in Cebu last Tuesday afternoon.
The dump truck, which carried 40 persons, came from a funeral in the Badian Public Cemetery and was headed to barangay Candees past 5 p.m. when the incident occurred.
The incident occurred amid a ban ordered by the Department of Interior and Local Governments (DILG) requiring all local government units (LGUs) in Central Visayas not to use dump trucks to transport people to far-flung areas.
The ban came after a dump truck carrying 40 people fell off a ravine in Barili town, Cebu, killing 11 people in August last year.
The people were headed home after attending a funeral at the time.
The Capitol and LGUs protested the ban, saying dump trucks were the most affordable means of transportation in these places.
But Regional Director Raul Aguilos of the Land Transportation Office in Central Visayas (LTO-7) said dump trucks should be used only to transport cargo and materials and not used to fetch people to and from their homes.
Last Tuesday’s accident occurred after the dump truck’s iron lock loosened, causing people to fall off.
Among those injured were 41-year-old Cirilio Ramos, 20-year-old Grace Ambrad, 41-year-old Angelina Purgatorio, 2-month-old Jerwin Commission, 23-year-old Felipe Cabungkag and 8-month-old Carl Vincent Ambrad.
Also injured were 30-year-old Maria Magbanwa, 49-year-old Rotaquio Silvestra, 28-year-old Mylene Belarde and 50-year-old Agustina Santianez. All were rushed to the Badian District Hospital.
Ramos, Commission, Grace Ambrad and Purgatorio were transferred to the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center (VSMMC) for further treatment.
The 2-month-old Commission sustained a lump on the head.
In a phone interview Senior Insp. Almirante Bacayo, Badian police chief, said it was possible that one of the passengers of the dump truck held the handle of the lock and mistakenly released it.
“The portion (of the lock) that was released is the same portion where they (passengers) climbed and held in order to go on board at the side of truck.” Bacayo told Cebu Daily News in a text message.
Jose Jimbo Dianon, the municipal driver who drove the white dump truck bearing plate number SGC 884, was detained in the detention cell of the Badian police precinct.
The dump truck was also held under custody. The case is still under investigation. Correspondent Rhea Ruth V. Rosell