Teacher dies, 34 injured in Negros Occidental bus accident

BACOLOD CITY — A 40-year-old female teacher died and 34 others were injured when the bus they were aboard fell on its side at Purok Talus, Barangay Igmaya-an of Don Salvador Benedicto town in Negros Occidental at 5:40 p.m. on Friday.

Of the 34 injured, 32 were teachers from the Paglaum Village Elementary School in Bacolod, according to Maria Laarni Pornan, Bacolod City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office head.

The bus, owned by the Bacolod city government, was transporting mostly public school teachers returning home from a team-building activity.

The teacher who died, also from the Paglaum Village Elementary School, stood up in panic and was fatally injured when the bus fell on its side, Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said in a separate interview on Friday.

The bus was descending from Kilometer 40 to Kilometer 41 of Don Salvador Benedicto when its brakes failed and fell on its left side, the town police reported.

Pornan said the bus had 36 persons on board — the teacher who died, the driver who was unharmed, the bus helper, 32 teachers, and a student who may have been the child of one of the passengers.

The group had reportedly gone to Sipaway Island in San Carlos City for a team-building activity and was returning to Bacolod when the accident happened, Pornan said.

All the injured were brought to three hospitals in Bacolod City.

Eleven of the injured were in serious or critical condition, 15 were less critical, and eight were described as walking wounded, Pornan added.

The driver, Nelmo Gonzaga, 59, of Bacolod City, has been detained at the Don Salvador Benedicto Police Station.

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