19 injured in 7-vehicle smashup at C-3 Road

MANILA, Philippines - Some 19 bus passengers were injured after an airconditioned passenger bus slammed into the rear of an ordinary fare bus while picking up passengers along C-3 Road yesterday morning in Caloocan City.

Some 16 of around 50 passengers from the Precious Grace Transport bus (TXT-791) and three passengers from a liner of the United Workers Transport ((NVD-315) were injured and taken to various hospitals nearby.

An hour earlier, a fully loaded bus that lost its brakes started a chain of destruction directly ramming two vehicles stalled in traffic at the North Luzon Expressway in Bagong Barrio, Caloocan City. Four other vehicles slammed into each other trying to avoid the runaway bus that zigzagged at the southbound lane of the NLEX.

Luckily, the multiple collision at the NLEX resulted only in two persons hurt. They were taken to a nearby hospital and were immediately sent home after treatment of minor bumps and abrasions.

The accident happened as heavy early morning traffic just after the Balintawak tollway plaza ground to a halt for several kilometers toward Manila and at the Balintawak Cloverleaf Interchange to EDSA.

SPO2 Ricardo Villanueva, Caloocan City Traffic Enforcement Unit chief, said the suspects in the two separate incidents will be filed the corresponding charges. Villanueva said the UWT bus driven by Dominador Garcia, 50, on its way to its terminal in FTI Complex, Taguig City, was picking up passengers near Martiniko street corner C-3 Road when the Precious Grace aircon bus rammed its left rear end.

Rommel Sales, 24, aircon bus driver, told The STAR he was trying to avoid a speeding 16-wheeler truck loaded with an empty 20-foot container van on his left side as he was trying to pass the UWT bus. “Baka may namatay pa kung tinuloy kong umarangkada sa kaliwa ng bus. Ang bilis-bilis nung trailer siguro mga 70 (kilometers per hour) habang tumatakbo ako ng mga 50 kph kaya binangga ko na lang yung (UWT) bus,” said Sales.

“Humahalakhak pa sila (driver and helpers of the trailer truck) as the aircon bus hit us with a loud bang,” said Garcia. The trailer truck that started it all at C-3 sped on as bystanders carried the injured to several hospitals nearby. Garcia and Sales both said they could not identify the culprits.