Truck sideswipes truck; 3 dead, 38 hurt

CEBU CITY—Three persons, including a 13-year-old boy, were killed while 38 others were injured when a dump truck carrying sugarcane plantation workers and their families was sideswiped by a cargo truck and fell into a 15-meter ravine in Tabogon town, 93.7 kilometers north of here, on Saturday.

Dead on the spot were Warren Cañas, 13, of Barangay Managasi, Tabogon, and Juvelyn Puebla, 20, of Caduawan village also in  Tabogon, who both had head and body injuries after they were pinned by the dump truck, said P03 Epifanio Comedido, town police investigator.

The third fatality, identified as Romeo Ybañez of Caduawan, died at  Severo Verallo Hospital in nearby Bogo City because of injuries in different parts of the body,  Comedido said.

He said 36 people, mostly sugar plantation workers and including four children, were also brought to  Severo Verallo Hospital while two others were brought to the hospital in Tabogon’s adjoining town of Sogod.

The injured minors were identified by Comedido as Ailesh Monisit, 3, Purie Abayon, 16, Ella Eturma, 2, and Rena Eturma, 1.

The victims were passengers of the dump truck driven by Juvy Pedrano who worked in the hacienda owned by Manuel Dy in San Antonio, Bogo City.

Comedido said Pedrano had just fetched the workers from their respective residences in different barangays of Tabogon, as he had done every morning, and was bringing them to Dy’s sugarcane plantation when the mishap occurred.

Pedrano, interviewed on the phone from the Tabogon police station, said he was traversing a winding road along Barangay Ilihan in Tabogon when a cargo truck driven by Norman Monteron, 25, tried to overtake him but suddenly went back to the right lane and hit the rear portion of his truck.

Comedido said their investigation also showed the cargo truck trying to overtake the dump truck but was forced to get back on his lane and hit the dump truck to avoid a collision with an incoming motorcycle.

“The impact was so strong and I could no longer control my truck when it careened to the side of the road, hit and destroyed the railing before we fell down the ravine,” said Pedrano in Cebuano.

Pedrano said he was not sure if the minors who were in the truck were also workers but said some of them just accompanied their parents.

The men  worked for the sugarcane plantation while the wives sold food and drinks in the area, he said.

Monteron, now held at the Tabogon police, admitted in a phone interview that he was driving fast and apologized for the incident.