5 dead as overloaded jeepney falls into ditch in Abra

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BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — Five people were killed when an overloaded jeepney lost its brakes and fell into a meter-deep ditch in Licuan-Baay town in Abra province on Saturday night, an official of the Department of Transportation and Communication said on Sunday.

The accident came a day after a bus fell into a ravine in Bontoc town in Mt. Province, which killed 14 people and injured 32 others.

Celina Claver, DOTC Cordillera director, received the report on the Abra accident on Sunday as she prepared to proceed to Bontoc to investigate the bus accident.

The Office of Civil Defense (OCD) in the Cordillera region said the jeepney (plate number AYG 358) was ferrying 57 passengers, some of them atop the vehicle’s roof, when its brakes malfunctioned as it negotiated a sharp curve in Sitio (sub-village) Baquero, Barangay (village) Nalbuan in Licuan-Baay at 6:05 p.m.

The jeepney crashed into a ditch, killing two girls, two women and a man, the OCD said.

Before the accident, the passengers who were beneficiaries of government’s conditional cash transfer program, attended an assembly at the Licuan-Baay town hall. They were on their way to Barangay Mapisla when the accident happened, OCD reports said.
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