8 dead, 12 hurt as truck plows into fiesta crowd

COTABATO CITY — Eight people were killed while a dozen others were injured when a wayward dump truck, loaded with some 12 cubic meters of sand, rammed several vehicles and a throng of people celebrating a fiesta in Makilala, North Cotabato at past 3 p.m. yesterday.

The Makilala police confirmed to Catholic station dxND, an outfit of the Oblate congregation, that eight died while undergoing treatment at different hospitals in Kidapawan City.

Six of the fatalities, among them the still unidentified dump truck driver, were brought to the Collado Funeral Home, while the two others were taken from the hospital by workers of the Torreda Funeral Services, both operating in Kidapawan City.

Initial investigation revealed the dump truck, which apparently lost its brakes while maneuvering a downhill curve, wiggled and rammed head-on onto several smaller cars on its path before it hit a group of people celebrating a barrio fiesta just meters away from a roadside chapel.

One of the fatalities was a policeman named PO1 Jose Molina, who died on the spot. — John Unson