High-speed bus-truck crash speeding kills 14

CEBU, Philippines - Aladdin Law-it was used to driving buses very fast. In fact bus owner Eladio Duhaylungsod Culaljo said he already heard numerous complaints about the speed of Law-it’s driving but his admonitions about speeding obviously went unheeded.

Early yesterday morning, even as Law-it was his usual self speeding on yet another Sibonga to Cebu City run, fate finally caught up with him.

As he overtook another bus in Naga, just in front of the South General Hospital, Law-it crashed his bus head-on into a 10-wheeler van hauler going in the opposite direction.

The crash was so loud it jolted a sleepy Burger Machine stall operator almost off her stool. Pieces of metal and glass flew all over, some of them raining on the roof of a nearby house.

Witnesses said almost 10 minutes of total silence followed before the first cries of help shattered the early morning air in barangay Tuyan.

As people roused from their sleep scrambled to help pull out bodies from the mangled wrecks of the two vehicles, it became very clear that the toll would be very high.

They were right. At least 14 people, including Law-it and the driver of the truck, were killed, almost all of them right on the spot. Three others were seriously hurt and required medical attention at the nearby SouthGen Hospital.

Police investigator SPO4 George Canomon of the Naga City police identified the driver of the truck as Hever Alipio. Alipio had no one with him in his truck,

He was also able to name ten other fatalities as Chonie Cavan, Rodrigo Lana, Warren Alesser, brothers Nestor and Alan Omilgo, Claire Jasma, Nora Yabo Pacubas and her 10-year-old daughter Charlene, Virgilio Labiano, and Annabel Alforque.

Canomon could not immediately identify the two other fatalities.

Alan Omilgo was the bus conductor while his elder brother Nestor was on his way to work in Cebu City.

The three bus passengers who sustained major injuries were identified as Alexander Autilde. Jennifer Gregorio, and Ma. Fe Rodela.

Ana Bariquit, a representative of the EDC Bus Liner, said passengers of all their buses are insured so that the victims can expect financial assistance for all their burial and medical needs.

She said the accident was the first major one involving one of their buses is the 11 years that the company has been in operation.

What made the accident even more tragic is that the wife of Law-it, the bus driver, is five months pregnant with their ninth child.

Bus owner Culaljo, who lives in Naga, said he was able to talk to conductor Alan Omilgo for a few minutes when the bus checked in to remit proceeds from the previous day. He said nothing in his conversation with Omilgo suggested that a great tragedy was about to happen in just a few minutes.

Culaljo said another EDC bus came by just ahead of the ill-fated bus of Law-it but it was not clear if this was the same bus that Law-it would try to overtake minutes later.

Whatever that bus was, it did not stop to check what happened and went on its way.

Culaljo admitted that while he was aware of Law-it’s tendency to go speeding, he still trusted him enough to occasionally ask him to drive for his wife.

Drivers of southbound buses have gained notoriety over the years as being speed demons and scores of dead bodies have littered the southern roads over the years.

Culaljo said he always makes it a point to advise his drivers about speeding but then he also said he understood the need to make as many trips as possible.

The bus owner said he charges each minibus driver P1,400 in boundary, or rent, each day. The remainder of the day’s collection, the driver shares with his conductor.

Naga City Mayor Valdemar Chiong, on learning of the accident, immediately went to the hospital to put up coordinating centers for the families of the victims.

A huge traffic jam ensued after the accident but police managed to untangle it by 10 a.m. after the disfigured vehicles were moved to the side of the road. – THE FREEMAN