DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Maguindanao del Norte (PNA) – Six persons died while 13 others were injured in a freak accident on the national highway here before dawn on Sunday, March 5.
Sgt. Benjamin Bedo, Datu Odin Sinsuat traffic investigator, said a pickup truck, a loaded passenger van, and a tricycle were involved in the 4:30 a.m. mishap in Barangay Kurinte.
“Five of the fatalities on board the passenger van were to attend a family reunion in Maguindanao del Sur (province) when the incident occurred,” Bedo said.
He identified the fatalities as Unasan Kaul, the passenger van driver and resident of Guindulungan, Maguindanao del Sur; and his passengers Norhaimin Baloadek, Manaut Guialudin, Kaidu Manalsal, and Mamakong Salimbao, all of Gen. SK Pendatun town, Maguindanao del Sur.
The driver of the pickup truck, a certain Bomber Gani, was declared dead on arrival in a hospital in Cotabato City. The tricycle driver, whose identity remains unknown, was critically injured.
Bedo said the pickup truck was heading to South Cotabato province when it first hit a tricycle traveling on the same lane before it collided head-on with the oncoming passenger van.
“The four-lane highway, about two kilometers straight and paved is seemingly tempting for motorists to speed up,” Bedo said, adding that witnesses said the involved vehicles were traveling at high speed.
He appealed to drivers of slow-moving vehicles to use the outermost lanes to avoid road accidents.