9 dead in Ilocos Norte road accident

LAOAG CITY, Philippines—At least nine people, most of them high school and college students, were killed when a passenger jeepney collided with a 10-wheel truck in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, on Tuesday morning, police said.

Field reports from the Sarrat police said the vehicles were traveling on an uphill section of a road in Barangay (village) Pariir at 7 a.m. when the accident happened. Police said the jeepney driver, Ludwig de la Cruz, tried to overtake another vehicle but he failed to see the approaching truck and slammed into into it.

Police said De la Cruz, Evelyn Canonizado and her child, Rile, and students Mikee Agbayani, Jessica Garupan and Jeremy Burgos died in the accident. Three other fatalities, including the jeepney’s conductor, have yet to be identified.

This was the second major accident in northern and central Luzon in a week.

On September 26, nine people died and eight others were injured when a Metro Manila-bound bus hit a fuel tanker on the Maharlika Highway in the city of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija.