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BACOLOD CITY—At least 47 people were hurt on Thursday afternoon when the truck they were riding fell on its side after hitting a concrete barrier in a mountain village of Don Salvador Benedicto town , about 42 kilometers east of this city.
The victims came from a wedding in Calatrava town and were heading home to Bago City when the accident happened at Purok Mabuhay, Barangay (village) Pandanon in Don Salvador Benedicto town, at 5:45 p.m., said Inspector Celjun Nemenio, the town’s police chief.
He said Jolibert Gonzales, 50, driver of the Canter truck was detained by the Don Salvador Benedicto police pending investigation.
Gonzales said he and the passengers on the truck, many of whom were his relatives, went to Calatrava town in northern Negros Occidental to attend a wedding.
After the wedding, they headed home to Purok Malipayon, Barangay Busay, Bago, he added.
Gonzales said that while he was driving downhill in Purok Mabuhay in Don Salvador Benedicto, he shifted gears and stepped on the brakes.
He added that the brakes malfunctioned, causing him to hit the cement barrier on the side of the road that was put up to prevent vehicles from falling into a cliff.
When the truck fell on its side, the people at the back of the truck fell. The legs of a 6-year-old girl, who was the flower girl in the wedding, were pinned under the vehicle, said Gonzales.
The driver said he and his two companions in the front seat of were unharmed.
The passengers were rushed to the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital and the Bacolod Adventist Medical Center, Nemenio said.