20 die after bus falls into ravine

CEBU, Philippines - At least 20 people, most of them Iranians, are confirmed dead after a bus plunged into a 30-meter deep ravine at the Transcentral Highway in barangay Cansumuroy, Balamban town late yesterday morning.

The JD tourist bus with plate number GWZ-666 was carrying about 55 medical students and doctors to the town of Balamban to go to a beach resort when the accident happened.

As of 9 p.m., 24 people have been reported injured.

They were rushed to the Balamban District Hospital and private hospitals in Cebu City.

Several rescue teams rushed to the scene including the top military and police officials of the region.

Lt. Gen. Ralph Villanueva, commander of the Central Command, was in the area along with Chief Supt. Lani-O Nerez, director of the Police Regional Office (PRO)-7 to oversee the rescue efforts.

Huey helicopters of the Philippine Air Force were used to evacuate some of the injured to Cebu City.

The helicopters, however, had to be pulled out before it got dark for safety reasons.

Rescue teams continued to work until late last night to pull out the bodies trapped under the wreckage.

Elmer Navaja and Macias Pacquiao, who are residents of the area, were the first to rush to crashed bus.

They were building the house of Navaja when they heard a loud sound coming from the road and saw the bus going very fast downhill.

The next thing they saw was the bus plunging into the ravine.

Saleh Hossainkani, one of the survivors, said that they smelled something burning inside the bus before the accident happened.

Asst. Sec. Alberto H. Suansing, chief of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) is due in Cebu early today to personally visit the accident site, said Benjamin Go, regional director of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB)-7.

Go told The Freeman that Suansing wants to personally check the site and they would be heading straight to Balamban from the airport.

According to Lt. Col. Wilson Feria, spokesman of Centcom, the accident happened between 10 and 10:30 a.m. while the bus was going downhill and negotiating a curve.

He said that there were ten survivors, who were airlifted to Camp Lapu-lapu in barangay Apas, Cebu City then were brought to private hospitals for treatment.

The ten who were airlifted were identified as Ali Chavosi, 31 years old; Maeden Rajay, 27; Orge Sitay; a certain Marian; a certain Mohammad; Mohammed Navoidi, 31; Hassan Ghareinasab, 35; Toctam Eftekhari, 30; Masomabadi Mebrang, 35; and Marian Nasari, 27.

Those airlifted were brought to the Cebu Doctors Hospital, Chong Hua Hospital and Perpetual Succour Hospital.

The Balamban Police identified some of the fatalities.

Positively identified were Shah Mary Sharan, 31; Ataa Bargh Chi, 5; the boy’s father Devi Bargh Chi and his mother, whose name the authorities were still trying to get; a certain Fohjan, who was a student of the Gullas College of Medicine; Dr. Ali Kamrani from the Cebu Doctors University.

Pedram Farjam and Hamed Reza Hoori, students of the Gullas College of Medicine; Dr. Morteza Ghasem, Pathology resident of CDU; Alfa Bargh Chi, 16; Pasha Masoomabadi and Pasha Johani, both minors; Mohammad Bebjoubyen, 23 and a student of CDU; and Farshed, who is reportedly a radiologist of CDU.

The bus was driven by a certain Jimmy, but his fate is not yet known.

The police could not yet give his full name as of presstime and said that they were still trying to retrieve four bodies from inside the bus, but were having a hard time doing it.

WTG Construction sent a backhoe to help in the retrieval of the bodies, but engineers were still trying to figure out a way to pull the wreckage out of the ravine.

The embassy of Iran will also be sending staff here to assist their citizens, who were involved in the tragedy, upon the request of the Iranian community in Cebu.

The bodies of the fatalities were brought to the Cosmopolitan Funeral Homes along Junquera St., where they would be kept in a freezer so that these could be repatriated to Iran.

The Balamban police said that it was the third time that a vehicle fell in that ravine, which is about 11 kilometers away from the town proper.

In the first two incidents, a pick-up truck and a van were involved, but there were no fatalities.—/NLQ (THE FREEMAN)