Bus accidents injure 70 in Caloocan, Quezon City

Around 70 people were hurt in two separate road accidents involving buses and a truck in Caloocan and Quezon City.

A rice delivery truck crashed into a bus at the intersection of 7th Avenue and B. Serrano Street in Caloocan’s Grace Park area around 6:10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Police said 32 people, including the drivers of both vehicles, were injured and rushed to nearby hospitals

Quoting witnesses, SPO1 Rick Villanueva of the Caloocan police traffic division said the two vehicles did not slow down and were doing 50 to 60 kph as they approached the intersection.

The truck (TQR 940) driven by Jerwin Pebrero was moving along 7th Avenue going to Navotas, while the Alro Trans bus (TYS 225) driven by Monico Quinio and carrying 30 passengers was coming from B. Serrano Street heading toward Edsa.

“The truck hit the midsection of the bus. The impact was so strong that both vehicles fell on their sides,” Villanueva told the Inquirer.

Villanueva said most of the victims were easily pulled out of the wreckage and brought to President Diosdado Macapagal Memorial Medical Center and Manila Central University Hospital.

However, it took longer for Quinio to be extracted as he was pinned in the driver’s seat. He was later declared to be in stable condition.

Villanueva noted that the intersection was an accident-prone area where “no traffic lights are installed” and trees tend to limit the view of motorists as they cross. “Drivers should not really be speeding there,” he said.

In Quezon City, 40 people were injured when a bus lost control and smashed into a concrete barrier on Commonwealth Avenue Monday night.

The driver, Rubencio Caneda of Barangay Humayao, Langkaan in Dasmarinas, Cavite province, reportedly abandoned his Everlasting bus (TXE- 604) but later surfaced at a hospital where he received treatment.

Senior Insp. Narciso Cajipe Jr., chief of the Quezon City Police District’s Traffic Sector 3, said the bus was plying the northbound lane near the Tandang Sora flyover when it lost its brakes, swerved and hit the concrete barrier.

The injured passengers, who were rushed to East Avenue Medical Center, said Caneda fled after the accident.

But Cajipe said he later learned from the bus company that the wounded Caneda showed up at the firm’s office after the accident and surrendered his driver’s license.

From there, Caneda went to the Far Eastern University Hospital, where he had himself confined, the officer added. Julie M. Aurelio and Nathaniel R. Melican