6 dead, 4 hurt in General Santos City highway accident

COTABATO CITY — Five commuters, among them a one-year-old and a tricycle driver, died when the three-wheeled vehicle carrying them collided head-on with a truck in Barangay Tambler in General Santos City on Sunday afternoon.

Officials of the General Santos City Police Office and Brig. Gen. Percival Augustus Placer, director of the Police Regional Office-12, separately told reporters on Monday that five of the six fatalities, a one-year-old child, 11-year-old child, Rosilene Pajaro, 28, Marivic Enan, 28, and tricycle driver Jay Cañedo, 32, died on the spot from injuries caused by the accident.

Another tricycle passenger, a six-year-old child, succumbed to injuries while in a hospital, according to Placer, citing a report from the General Santos CPO.

The accident left four other tricycle passengers, aged 7, 8, 12 and 13 are now confined in a hospital.  

There were radio reports on Monday morning stating that Cañedo, who was possibly under the influence of liquor then, lost control of his tricycle that crossed the other lane and got rammed by the Isuzu Forward truck approaching from the opposite direction of the route.

Two police investigators, Chief Master Sgt. Ronald Bautista and Senior Master Sgt. Limuel Aves, separately said that all of the six fatalities and their four injured companions were cramped in the tricycle that got hit by the truck at a stretch of the Makar-Siguel Highway in Purok Cabu in Barangay Tambler. 

They were said to have come from a beach resort and were on their way home when they figured in the road mishap.

The truck, whose driver is now under police custody, veered towards the side of the highway and hit a steel railing after colliding with the tricycle.