20 hurt as bus skids on Quezon highway

LUCENA CITY — A Naga City-bound passenger bus skidded and fell on its side along the Maharlika Highway in Calauag, Quezon pre-dawn Saturday and left 20 passengers injured, four of them in critical condition.

Chief Inspector Reynaldo Kasilag, Calauag police chief, said that at around 2:00 a.m. a Silver Star bus (TYZ-291) being driven by one Antonio Baultro, was travelling along the Maharlika Highway in Barangay (village) Mulay when the vehicle accidentally skidded in the middle of the road and fell on its right side.

Police said the passengers, who came from San Pedro, Laguna on their way to Naga City as devotees of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, exited from the bus through the broken rear windshield.

Kasilag said the bus driver immediately escaped after the accident.

Villagers and local policemen who rushed to the accident site brought the injured to different hospitals in Calauag and nearby towns of Lopez and Gumaca, police said.

“Based on our latest report, four of the passengers are in critical condition,” Kasilag said over the phone.