5 dead, 11 hurt in Quezon road accident

LUCENA CITY — Five passengers died and only 11 others were injured (not 33 as reported earlier) in a road accident in Pagbilao town in Quezon province Saturday afternoon, police said in an updated report Sunday.

Col. Audie Madrideo, Quezon police chief, said a Mitsubishi delivery truck being driven by Sander Soliveres accidentally collided with an incoming Bicol-bound CUL Transport passenger bus in a section of new diversion road in Barangay (village) Silangang Malicboy around 4:30 p.m.

Five passengers of the bus died on the spot.

In a phone interview, Staff Master Sgt. Darwin Balisalisa, Pagbilao police investigator, clarified that after their follow up investigation, they found out that only 10 bus passengers and Soliveres were injured in the accident.

The injured were confined at the Quezon Medical Center and MMG Hospital in Lucena City.

Balisalisa said the rest of the 26 bus passengers, who were unharmed while some only sustained insignificant injuries, were inadvertently classified as injured in the spot report.

The five fatalities – two adult females; three males, two adults and one minor – were still unidentified.

Investigation report said Soliveres reportedly lost control of the truck due to faulty brakes, and the vehicle consequently occupied the opposite lane and hit the left side of the incoming bus.

Edited by JE