10, mostly students, dead in Ilocos road crash

LAOAG CITY—At least 10 people, most of them high school students, died and three others were hurt on Tuesday when the jeepney carrying them collided with a 10-wheel truck in Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, police said.

The vehicles were traveling on an uphill section of a road in Barangay 18 at 7:30 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 rammed it.

De la Cruz, his conductor Glister Romero and passengers Evelyn Canonizado, her child Rilley Austin, and Mikee Agbayani, Angelika Cruz, Angelika Malilay, Jeremy Burgos, Christian Vizconde and Jenica Doropan, all students, died instantly.

Agbayani was a student of Mariano Marcos State University in this city while the others went to Sta. Rosa National High School in Sarrat.

The truck driver, Vencio Butac, and his companion were unharmed.

Gov. Imee Marcos and Sarrat Mayor Edito Balintona promised financial support for the victims’ relatives. “This is a sad day for all of us. We could only offer prayers to those who perished,” the governor said.

This was the second major accident in northern and central Luzon in a week. On Sept. 26, nine people died and eight others were hurt when a Metro Manila-bound bus collided with a fuel tanker along Maharlika Highway in the Science City of Muñoz in Nueva Ecija. Cristina Arzadon, Inquirer Northern Luzon