Death toll in Aurora road mishap now 10

MA. AURORA, Aurora, Philippines – Five more passengers of an Elf truck that fell into a 30-foot ravine here Monday died yesterday, bringing the death toll to 10, authorities said.

This developed as four people, including a six-year-old girl, were killed while seven others suffered injuries in a seven-vehicle smashup along Kilometer 64 of the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) in Mabalacat, Pampanga Monday afternoon.

In another road mishap, 13 people were injured, four of them seriously, when a delivery truck rammed into three vehicles in Cagayan de Oro City also on Monday afternoon. 

Senior Superintendent Romulo Esteban, Aurora police director, said five other passengers of the Elf truck were still in critical condition at a hospital in Baler, the capital town.

The victims came all the way from Pangasinan to attend a wedding in Barangay Banco, Ma. Aurora town when the truck driver missed a sharp curve, plunging the vehicle into the ravine.

The fatalities were identified as Dion Sabado, 5; Maximo Ravena; Mary Grace Nava, 42; Myra Barbado, 13; Carlito Francisco, 24; Jimmy Macadaeg and his son Mclean; Pedro Sabado; Rosalina Barbado; and Delia Ventura.

Meanwhile, police identified the fatalities in the SCTEX smashup as six-year-old Margaret Geronimo; Sylvia Estaquio, 62; and Zenaida Doctor, 63, who were all on board a Toyota Avanza van, and Cristina Geronimo, 37, a passenger of another vehicle, who died later in a local hospital.

Several others were injured and brought to various hospitals in Mabalacat, Pampanga and Concepcion, Tarlac,

Benigno Valles, corporate communications manager of the Tollways Management Corp., which operates the SCTEX, described the accident as the worst so far since the expressway was opened to motorists last year.

Valles said the accident was apparently triggered by thick smoke from burning dry vegetation along the expressway. Survivors said the smoke caused zero visibility in the area. – With Manny Galvez, Ric Sapnu, Ben Serrano and Ding Cervantes