TRUCKS RAMS BIKES; 6 DEAD
KIDAPAWAN CITY – Six persons died, five of them on the spot, and three others were injured when they were rammed by a truck delivering cases of softdrinks after its brakes malfunctioned on a controversial road in Makilala, North Cotabato yesterday.
KIDAPAWAN CITY – Six persons died, five of them on the spot, and three others were injured when they were rammed by a truck delivering cases of softdrinks after its brakes malfunctioned on a controversial road in Makilala, North Cotabato yesterday.
Reports from the Traffic Division of the Makilala Philippine National Police said four of those who died were drivers of motorcycles the truck bound for Kidapawan smashed into when it started to go wayward in Barangay Malasila where a known dangerous curve is located and considered part of the “killer highway” in Makilala.
Also killed was a still unidentified woman who, while waiting for a bus ride to Davao City, was crushed by softdrink cases that fell over her.
The irony of it, provincial board member Socrates Piñol, younger brother of Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol, recently filed a resolution urging the Department of Public Works and Highway to consider redesigning that stretch of the CotabatoMakilala highway.
“That portion of the highway is a killer spot. We in the province are aware of that since we were children,” Piñol told a local radio program days before the latest accident happened.
The truck driver, identified as Julius Cadaba, of Midsayap, North Cotabato, his helper, and a passenger from a motorcycle suffered severe injuries and were taken to different hospitals in Makilala and Kidapawan City.
“I saw the truck running very fast along the highway and suddenly crashed on the motorcycles before going to the shoulder,” a resident of Barangay Kisante said.
The names of the fatalities were not available as of presstime.
Authorities have recorded at least 10 vehicular accidents that killed 10 motorists in the same area in the past three months.
It was the second truck of softdrink maker Pepsi that figured in an accident after another one of its trucks also lost it brakes which led to the death of its driver and helper last week also in Makilala.