104-year-old man among 6 killed in Bacolod road mishap

BACOLOD CITY — A 104-year-old man was among six people killed when a truck carrying plantation workers crashed into a mini-bus in Gaston, Barangay Punta Mesa, Manapla, some 42 kilometers north of this city.

Twenty-eight people were also injured in the accident.

Reports said the truck lost a wheel and swerved, hitting the mini-bus. Aboard the truck were 40 laborers on their way to Manapla after working from a nearby sugarcane farm.

The fatalities, who were all passengers of the mini-bus, were Elizabeth Jabaro, who died on the spot; Francisco Agabon, 104; Dominador de la Peña, 76; Leorosa Alcarte and two others who remained unidentified and expired while being treated at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital here.

All died of head injuries, Manapla police chief Fructuso Lim said.

Mini-bus driver Ronilo Opialda remains in critical condition at the Riverside Medical Center.

The mini-bus that regularly plies the Escalante-Bacolod route was on its way to Victorias City from Escalante when the left front wheel of an red Isuzo cargo truck driven by Rafael Cunanan got detached, causing it to swerve and eventually slam into the approaching vehicle. — With AFP