19 dead, 49 hurt in twin road mishaps

At least 19 people were killed and 49 others were injured in two traffic accidents the other day in Quezon and Isabela, highlighting the danger of travel on the country’s rural roads, police said.

A jeep carrying people from a wedding smashed into an oncoming Raymund passenger bus on a mountain road in Tagkayawan, Quezon, killing 11 people in the jeep and injuring six others, police said.

The bus plunged into a deep ravine, injuring 25 aboard, said police officer Justino Legazpi.

"I saw a jeep hurtling toward us, then hit our bus," bus passenger Liza Carbon told police investigators. "Glass shards and debris hit me all over and I passed out. When I woke up, I was in a hospital."

The accident in Tagkawayan occurred near where a passenger bus plunged into a ravine last November, killing at least 33 people, Legazpi said.

In the second accident, a speeding truck carrying members of a Pentecostal group to a religious seminar hit a parked truck, killing eight people and injuring 18 others, in Santa Maria, Isabela, said Senior Superintendent Nelson Nario.

Nario said the driver apparently lost control when he avoided running over newly harvested rice being dried on a roadside. The impact threw some of the passengers out of the truck, witnesses told police.

Accidents in rural areas are frequent because buses are old and poorly maintained, and dangerously narrow roads often lack safety signs or guardrails. — Arnell Ozaeta