Hearing vs bus firm in NLEX mishap set next week

MANILA, Philippines - The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) will hear next week a complaint filed against a bus company following an accident involving the family of two honorary consuls.

LTFRB chairman Winston Ginez said the agency’s legal division has issued a show cause order against First North Luzon Transit over the incident along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) on Sunday.

No preventive suspension order was issued against the bus liner as of yesterday afternoon, but Ginez said a hearing would be conducted on Jan. 14.

The family of Consuls Rene and Fortune Ledesma of Bulgaria and Monaco, respectively, were coming from a vacation in Baguio City when a bus rammed the rear of their vehicle along the southbound lane of NLEX near Apalit in Pampanga last Jan. 4.

The bus reportedly “failed to brake in time” and hit the back of the family’s Hyundai Starex, causing the van to smash into another bus that was in front of it.

The consuls were with their youngest son Rico, his wife Sheila and their two-year-old daughter, a nanny and a driver during the incident.

“The force of the impact caused the smashed engine of the Starex to burst into smoke and flames while the back of our Starex was crumpled by the bus,” said the couple’s son, events and television host RJ Ledesma.

“The front of the Starex was burning and was eventually extinguished by a responding NLEX patrol,” he said in a statement.

“If you saw the remains of the car, you would not believe that all the passengers in the vehicle survived the ordeal,” he added.

According to RJ, who is also a lifestyle columnist for The STAR, the passengers in the vehicle “suffered concussions, cuts and bruises,” except for his mother who suffered more serious injuries.

He lamented that no one from First North Luzon Transit was immediately available to provide assistance to the Ledesma family after the incident.

“Once my sister and myself found out about the incident, we tried frantically to get in touch with First North Luzon Transit with their landline that appeared online. But the number just kept on ringing,” he said.

He said no offer of “any kind of assistance, nor any words of comfort” was given to them when he was able to reach a company’s representative the following day.

“Thus, for the sake of my family and for public safety, I would like to call for immediate action, including suspension of First North Luzon bus lines, pending the investigation of the incident, restraining their drivers, checking on the quality of their buses, their processes/services in handling the victims of their accidents and the structure of their settlement claims,” he said in a statement.

The STAR tried to contact First North Luzon Transit for comment but the bus company has yet to issue a statement regarding the incident. – With Cherry Salazar