Four killed, 15 injured

ROSALES, Pangasinan: Four persons were killed while 15 others were injured in two separate road accidents in Pangasinan on Saturday.

In this town, three persons died on the spot while 14 others were hurt when a utility van carrying them rolled over the northbound lane of the Tarlac Pangasinan La Union Expressway (TPLEx) after its left rear tire burst at about 9 a.m. on February 10.

Rosales police chief Maj. Glenn Dulay identified those killed as Ronald Rey Salvador Jebulan, 32, Conchita Tumbaga Salvador, 76, and Jabel Lastimosa Abano, 30.

Among those injured who are now recovering in a hospital in Urdaneta City were children ages six months to five years old.

Dulay said that the accident took place at TPLEx’s Kilometer 170.5, just after the Carmen exit in Barangay Tomana West of this town.

The group, who came from Caloocan City in Metro Manila, was heading to the Our Lady of the Minor Basilica of the Rosary of Manaoag in Manaoag town to have the vehicle they were using blessed.

Dulay said that after its left rear tire burst, the vehicle swerved to the right and hit a barrier before rolling over the expressway at least five times.

Dulay said the vehicle may have been travelling at a speed of 90 to 100 kilometers per hour.

In Santo Tomas town, a motorcycle rider was killed after he collided head-on with a tricycle in the town’s Luna village at about 11 p.m. on February 10.

Police said the motorcycle driver Xyvier Napa Tabilin, 25, of Barangay Salvacion in Santo Tomas, was thrown off his motorcycle after the collision. He did not reach the hospital alive because of his injuries.

The tricycle driver, Raymund Opeña Viernes, 48, a resident of Barangay San Jose, also in Santo Tomas, was being treated in a hospital at press time.

Investigators said that the motorcycle was traversing the westbound lane of the road when it was hit by the tricycle traversing the road’s opposite direction.