4 dead, 13 hurt in General Santos road accident

COTABATO CITY — Four individuals died while 13 others, three of them children, were injured in an accident involving a van and a pick-up truck in Barangay Apopong in General Santos City on Sunday, February 16.

Senior officials of the General Santos Police Office told reporters on Monday, February 17, that van driver Rasol Angkob Adam, 56, his passengers Mambai Adam Dimaraw, 66, Mona Butuan Salilaguia, 62, and the 30-year-old Bai Intan Abdullah were all declared dead on arrival at a hospital were emergency responders brought them for treatment.

Brig. Gen. Arnold Ardiente, director of Police Regional Office-12, said the van with license plate NDC 5940, en route to Cotabato City, was struck head-on by a pick-up truck that veered into the left lane on the highway in Barangay Apopong, General Santos City.

Witnesses told police investigators and responding barangay officials that they saw the speeding pick-up truck, with license plates LAM 1506, cut into the left lane and collide with the van full of passengers.

The collision of the two vehicles left the 36-year-old driver of the pick-up truck, Harvey Ngalon Collado, and his four companions, three of them children, all his relatives, badly injured.

Ranking personnel of the General Santos City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office confirmed to reporters that eight passengers of the van were also seriously hurt in the accident.