Couple, minor die in Bukidnon highway accident

COTABATO CITY— A couple and their niece were killed instantly in a tragic accident when their van collided head-on with a hauler truck at one end of a bridge in Barangay Lantay, Pangantucan, Bukidnon, on Thursday, December 19.

Officials from the Bukidnon Provincial Police Office reported on Friday, December 20, that the impact of the collision was so severe that the victims, spouses Argon and Sonia Bangit, along with their niece, were ejected from their Nissan van. They fell into the river below the bridge, where they were struck by a truck loaded with sugarcane from a nearby plantation.

The fully loaded Mitsubishi Fuso hauler truck, out to deliver newly harvested sugarcane to a sugar mill somewhere in the province, rolled over and landed upside down when its driver, Bryan Benachay, lost control of the wheel after hitting the van coming from the opposite direction of the route. 

In an initial report released late Sunday, the Pangantucan Municipal Police Station stated that Benachay and his helper, Sayson Alquizar, both injured in the accident, are now confined in a hospital.