14 killed as bus slams into post

Most of the fatalities were college students on a camping trip

At least 14 people, most of them college students on a camping trip, were killed Monday when their rented bus lost its brakes on a downhill road then slammed into an electric post, officials said.

Ten of the victims were killed on the spot and four others, including the driver, died in two hospitals following the accident in the hilly town of Tanay in Rizal province east of Manila, Tanay disaster-response officer Darlito Bati Jr. said.

More than 40 others were in- jured and taken to hospitals, with several of them in critical condition, Tanay officials said.

Bati, who was among those who helped pull the victims from the bus wreckage, said many of the dead were piled in a heap of bodies in front of the passenger cabin.

The impact was so strong it ripped off a large chunk of the roof of the bus and scattered around the victims’ belongings.

Garbage truck driver Danny Gutierrez said some of the survi- vors wept, while others suffering from broken legs and cuts were too shocked to speak.

“The bus is a total wreck,” Bati said by telephone.

The bus was in a convoy of several vehicles transporting hundreds of Bestlink College students to a camping resort when the accident happened 50 kilometers east of Manila.

Carlos Inofre, engineer of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said they were still validating the number of injured passengers but said all are out of danger. Most of them sustained bone fractures.

He said three injured passengers were transferred to Amang Rodriguez Medical Center, seven in Tanay General Hospital, one in Tanay Community Hospital and 17 in Rizal Provincial Hospital.