NLEx accident: 1 dead, 6 injured as girder falls on vehicle

A girder from the Marilao Bridge collapsed onto a red Mitsubishi Adventure along the NLEx northbound lane on June 18, 2025, killing one passenger and injuring six others. The girder fell after an oversized truck struck the underside of the bridge. (Photo courtesy of Marilao Police)

MARILAO, Bulacan — A passenger was killed and six others were injured on Wednesday after a container truck struck the underside of the Marilao Bridge along the northbound lane of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), causing a girder to fall and crush a vehicle passing below.

Col. Franklin Estoro, director of the Bulacan Police, identified the fatality as Bong Chua, 54, of Metro Manila. He was declared dead on arrival at Joni Villanueva Hospital in Bocaue.

According to Marilao police chief Col. Eulogio Lamqui III, Chua was seated in the third row of a red Mitsubishi Adventure driven by Christopher Allan Dave De Guzman. The vehicle overturned and landed on its right side after being struck by the fallen girder.

READ: NLEX closes Marilao Interchange bridge due to road mishap

Five other passengers in the Asian Utility Vehicle (AUV) were injured and were also brought to the same hospital.

Lamqui said the group was traveling along the northbound lane of NLEX in Barangay Patubig around noon on their way to Baguio City for a vacation when a girder from the Marilao Bridge suddenly collapsed and struck the top of their vehicle.

An investigation revealed that a blue trailer container truck driven by Roy Taporco Macalisang, 31, of Tondo, Manila, was ahead of the AUV.

The truck hit the underside of the bridge, dislodging a girder and beam that fell onto the Mitsubishi Adventure.

The container truck was reportedly loaded with parcels bound for a warehouse in Bocaue. Roderico Pingol, an NLEx patrol team investigator, arrested Macalisang at the scene.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, NLEx Corporation confirmed that the truck had exceeded the bridge’s height limit, leading to the accident. The Marilao Bridge has a vertical clearance of only 4.27 meters.

In March, another oversized truck struck the same bridge, prompting a two-week temporary closure of several lanes in both directions to allow for repairs, which caused heavy traffic in the area.

A girder is a primary horizontal support beam that helps distribute the load of the bridge and is essential to its structural integrity.

Bulacan Vice Governor Alexis Castro, a native of Marilao, met with NLEx and other officials on June 5 at his office in the provincial capitol in Malolos to discuss preventive measures.

Castro criticized the lack of stricter enforcement at NLEx entry points, particularly concerning overloaded and oversized vehicles.

“What we were trying to prevent has happened again — and this time, someone lost their life,” he told the Inquirer on Thursday.

He also pointed out that, based on initial findings, the truck may have bypassed the Balintawak entry, where monitoring is more stringent, and instead entered through Meycauayan./mcm