10 killed in Cebu funeral accident

A resident lights candles by a roadside next to a truck at Barili township, Cebu province in central Philippines, the government-owned truck apparently was taking the remains of an unidentified resident and mourners to a cemetery for burial when it lost its brakes and fell into a ravine. AP/Chester Baldicantos

CEBU CITY—Ten persons were killed while 36 others were injured past noon on Thursday when a government dump truck they were riding in lost its brakes and fell on its side in a mountain village in Barili town, 61.6 km southwest of this city.

The municipal dump truck, loaded with the mourners from Barangay (village) Kandampas, was ferrying a coffin bearing the remains of 70-year-old Tranquilina Diagbil to St. Ann Parish at the town proper, about 15 km away, for a funeral Mass.

The dump truck was borrowed for use in the funeral of Jagbil who would be buried at the public cemetery after the Mass.

Mariñas said the wake of the 10 fatalities was held at the town’s gymnasium. The relatives of the victims decided not to bring home the remains out of fear that a similar accident might happen again, he added.

Alwin Bayno, 37, driver of the dump truck, was negotiating a downhill slope in Barangay Balao when the brakes exploded. Police detained the driver pending filing of a complaint of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and multiple physical injuries before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor’s Office. Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas