Minor motorist dead, 2 hurt in Koronadal City accident

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — A 14-year-old motorcycle rider died instantly while her companions were badly hurt in a road accident in Barangay Assumption in Koronadal City on Friday, January 31.

Officials of the Koronadal City Police Office and the Police Regional Office-12 separately confirmed on Saturday, February 1, the incident that resulted in the death of a 14-year-old student and left two others riding her motorcycle injured.

The two female minors who were hurt in the accident were both confined for a few hours in a hospital. All three victims are students in the Bacongco National High School in Barangay San Isidro in Koronadal City.

Investigators from the Koronadal City police force and barangay officials who responded to the incident told reporters that the victims were riding a motorcycle together, driven by one they identified only as Nicole, that crashed and rolled over many times while she was maneuvering through a downhill stretch of an unpaved, slippery road in Barangay Assumption.

Nicole fell in a concrete roadside flood control ditch, went unconscious and was reportedly declared dead on arrival by physicians at a hospital where emergency responders brought her for treatment.

School officials in Koronadal City, the capital of South Cotabato province in Region 12, told reporters they are to embark on programs meant to control underage students from riding motorcycles to prevent a repeat of the deadly motorcycle accident.

Police probers said the accident fatality Nicole did not have a valid license permitting her to drive a motorcycle.