TABUK CITY, Kalinga – A white pick-up truck that tried to avoid a falling boulder instead fell into a 10-meter ravine near the boundary of Rizal town and Tabuk City on Wednesday afternoon, August 3.
Fortunately, the seven passengers only sustained injuries, with a nine-month-old baby boy also on board miraculously escaping unhurt in the incident which happened at around 5:50 in the afternoon.
According to the investigation of the Traffic Management Unit of the Tabuk City Police Station, the white pick-up driven by Jayvee Mangada, 22, of Rizal, Kalinga, was traversing the Kalinga-Cagayan road when the driver, upon seeing a falling rock from a collapsed mountain, tried to swerve to avoid it.
The vehicle avoided the rock but fell on the ravine, according to Ladilyn Balawag Dangilan who saw the incident as she was in the convoy of the vehicle involved.
The victims came from Iloba Resort in Tabuk City and were on their way home to Rizal, Kalinga.
The passengers were brought to a hospital.
They were identified as Theresita Casibang, 65, with fractured thighs and right arm; Monaliza Ramilloza, 30, Barangay Health Worker, who suffered an open wound on the forehead, unconscious; Rica May Macasaddog, 23, who sustained a close fracture in the right forearm, unconscious.
Also injured was the driver, Mangada, who suffered multiple abrasions, an open wound on his head; Analiza Macasaddog, 30, with minor wounds; a nine-month-old baby boy; Santos Macasaddog, 72, with right abrasion on right chest, swelling on occipital area; and Biado Pablito, 65, with pain in the neck, abrasion in the left foot.
The police are strictly warning the public to avoid traveling in mountainous areas, due to possible sudden landslides or falling rock caused by the recent earthquake and frequent rains.