Bus driver in NLEX mishap faces homicide raps

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – Police yesterday filed charges of reckless imprudence resulting in multiple homicide and serious physical injuries and damage to property against the driver of the passenger bus that rammed a Toyota Revo and killed five people last Saturday along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) in Mabalacat, Pampanga, even as the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) grounded 10 units of the bus company that operates the Manila-Tarlac-Pangasinan and vice versa route.

Senior Superintendent Keith Ernald Singian, Pampanga police director, said the Mabalacat police filed the charges against bus driver Bernardo Santos, 34, of Mangaldan, Pangasinan who was among the more than 60 injured in the collision and who is still confined at the Angeles University Foundation Memorial Hospital.

The LTFRB field office in Dagupan City served the 30-day cease and desist order on the operator of Fermina Express pending the result of a separate investigation being conducted by the board.

The fatalities in the accident were identified as Ruth Diane Ferrer, 22, a law student of Ateneo de Manila University and driver of the Toyota Revo with license plate XHE-829, her companion Fr. Domingo Moraleda, 66, of Claret Formation School. Also killed were bus passengers Aurelia Orio Montera, 56, of San Juan City; Adela Padua, 63, of Quezon City, and a still unidentified female commuter.

Mabalacat police investigators said the northbound Fermina Express bus, driven by Santos, with license plate NYN-688 left Cubao in Quezon City and was on its way to San Carlos City in Pangasinan when the collision occurred at around 12 noon in Barangay Mabiga, Mabalacat.

Investigators said the bus was overtaking another vehicle and had occupied the lane of the Revo when the mishap happened.

“We will review the record of the bus company and if we find that it had already three accidents we have no recourse but to cancel its franchise to operate,” said LTFRB chairman Thompson Lantion.

The LTFRB is also investigating reports that the bus was overloaded when the accident happened.

LTFRB officials have also suspended the operations of the Joanna Jesh Bus Lines that operates in Metro Manila after two of its buses were involved in an accident along EDSA in Quezon City, which killed one person and wounded two others. – With Perseus Echeminada, Ding Cervantes