Bus falls off road in Samboan; 3 hurt in Alcoy accident

CEBU, Philippines - A passenger bus ran off the road and fell onto the shore after its driver allegedly fell asleep while driving in Barangay Tangbo, Samboan town, yesterday dawn, while three men were injured after two trucks collided in Alcoy town later in the afternoon.

In Samboan the bus was a Ceres Liner bus bearing license plate number GWK-681 driven by a certain Britesam Quibido, a resident of Barangay Basak, Cebu City.

Based on the investigation conducted by the police the accident happened around 3 a.m., while the bus heading to its garage in Barangay San Sebastian, Samboan, from Cebu City.

Quibido allegedly fell asleep and the bus ran off the road and crashed on its right side onto the shore which was below the road level.

The driver and his conductor went to the hospital on their own to seek treatment and were no longer in the area when the police arrived.

But Jun Ambos, branch manager of Ceres Liner told The FREEMAN that Quibido did not fall asleep behind the wheel, rather the bus got into trouble after it hit a huge pile of gravel that blocked half of the road.

He said their drivers are well-rested before being allowed to work.

“Kung nakatug pa ang driver, unta ato palang time na niagi siya ug kurbada before pa sa place of incident, nadisgrasya na unta siya,” Ambos added.

They were able to extract the bus from the shoreline around noon yesterday. Ambos said that the right side of the bus was badly damaged and it was brought to their garage in Bacolod to be repaired.

Just last Monday, another Ceres bus got into an accident in Daanbantayan town after a motorcycle slammed head on into it.

Ambos said although they were not at fault they will still give assistance to the victim. 

Meanwhile, three men were injured, one of them seriously, after a truck owned by the province collided with another truck owned by the Philippine Spring Water Resources Inc. in Alcoy town yesterday afternoon.

Police said the Isuzu Canter with plate number SEZ-488 was driven by Wilson Villafranca, 63, of Barangay Basak Pardo, Cebu City. His passengers were identified as Rene Fajardo and Orlando Buenventura, all are under the Provincial Planning and Development Office, and headed for Cebu City from Oslob town.

Witnesses said that around 3 p.m. the Canter overtook a vehicle ahead of it but saw too late that there was another ten-wheeler truck in the opposite lane. The PSWRI truck with license plate number RES-278 was driven by Arnel Sasel, 29, of Barangay Malalay, Ronda town was on its way to Dumaguete City.

Witnesses told the police that the driver of the Capitol vehicle applied brakes and tried to avoid a collision but still slammed into the other truck and both swerved ending up resting side-by-side.

Villafranca and Buenaventura sustained bruises and wounds while Fajardo sustained serious injuries.

The victims were immediately brought to a hospital in Cebu City for treatment.

The Canter was severely damaged while the PSWRI truck had a broken windshield, bumper and signal light. The said truck is now in the Alcoy Police Station while the Capitol’s vehicle had yet to be retrieved from the accident site as of last night.— THE FREEMAN