KIDAPAWAN CITY – Twenty-six people were injured when a passenger bus ferrying them fell into a shallow ravine while traversing an accident-prone segment of the national highway in Barangay Amas here before down Friday.
Residents, reportedly awakened by a loud noise caused by the accident at about 2 a.m., responded and rescued all 25 passengers and their driver trapped inside the bus by breaking the rear windshield of the vehicle, witnesses said.
Informed about the mishap, the provincial police office located about four kilometers from the accident site sent a rescue team and brought the 26 injured people to the North Cotabato Provincial Hospital also in Barangay Amas, residents said.
Lt. Col. Bernard Tayong, speaking for the provincial police office, said all the 26 victims, including bus driver Jimmy Jose and his unnamed conductor, have been declared out of danger by attending physicians.
Jose, driver of Mindanao Star bus with body number 15676, told police investigators how he lost control of the bus due to “slippery” condition of the road amid intermittent downpours.
Tayong corroborated the driver’s claim, saying “it was raining overnight in Kidapawan and at the time of the mishap, the road was still wet.”
But residents argued the claim, saying the four-lane road, which was rehabilitated less than a year ago, could not be slippery even during heavy downpours.
They said they have for years been demanding for installation of warning signs along the road because it is replete with “unexplained mysteries,” including an alleged presence of a “white lady” appearing frequently at nights.
In about a decade, close to 30 accidents had already happened along the same “killer highway” and left dozens of people killed, residents said.
Friday’s predawn mishap happened after the bus rammed a concrete telephone line post before it fell into the shallow ravine while travelling from Davao City to Cotabato City, according to initial reports. (Ali G. Macabalang)
