17 dead in Cotabato road accident

KIDAPAWAN CITY—At least 17 people were burned to death when a cargo truck rammed a passenger van along the national highway in the town of Antipas in Cotabato province past noon Monday.

Police Maj. Godofredo Tupas II, Antipas municipal police station chief, said the accident occurred in Purok 2, Barangay Luhong, Antipas at 12:48 p.m., killing about 15 passengers and the driver of the Toyota Hiace van when it caught fire during the accident.

A passing motorbike was also torched after it got involved in the collision and its driver burned to death, according to Tupas.

The HOWO cargo truck, a heavy duty vehicle with license plate MAD 8703, was loaded with sand and gravel when the driver, Dumapias Nasiad, 50, of Digos City, lost control of the truck’s steering wheel and rammed the Hiace van (MWB911), driven by Mark Anthony Bunda.

Bunda and his passengers were trapped inside the vehicle when the van flipped twice, plunged into a drainage canal, and burst into flames.

“We are still investigating what triggered the collision, so far 17 are confirmed dead,” Tupas told the Inquirer on Monday afternoon.

“The area is accident prone,” said Castro Verdeblanco, head of the Antipas municipal disaster risk reduction and management council.

Among the fatalities was a child who was thrown out of the van and later expired in the hospital, police investigators said. No identifies yet

As of 6:10 p.m. on Monday, the municipality’s police investigators were still piecing together the details of the incident and could not yet say if there were survivors in the accident, said Tupas.

The passenger van had just left the terminal of Antipas town and was on its way to Kidapawan City, the provincial capital of Cotabato, when it got hit by the dump truck, which was coming from the opposite direction, along the sloppy road in Barangay Luhong, Tupas said.

The accident site was only about 10 kilometers from the town’s bus terminal, said Tupas.Nasiad, the dump truck driver, was traveling with his helper, Wilmark Josil Panoy, 27, and a passenger named Gregorio Wallace Casiño. Police investigators have yet to say if they were injured or were unharmed.

Most of the van passengers were still to be identified as their remains were badly burned, according to police investigators.

Tupas said the bodies of the fatalities were brought to the town’s funeral home. INQ