1 dead, 7 hurt in van, motorcycle collision

MAGUINDANAO, Philippines  --- A motorist was killed while seven others were seriously injured Monday when a speeding van hit from behind a motorcycle while maneuvering in a downhill stretch of a highway in North Upi town before plunging into a six-feet deep roadside ditch.

The fatality, 34-year-old Ruel Castro, of Azucena area in North Upi, was declared dead on arrival by physicians at the Datu Blah Sinsuat District Hospital in the same town.

Castro was on his way to the town center driving his Black Honda motorcycle when he was hit from behind by a Green Toyota Hi-Ace van bearing license plates WII-414.

The driver of the van, Melvin Laude Betuldez, 30, lost control of his vehicle after it rammed Castro’s bike, causing it to wiggle and fall into the ditch at the left side of the highway.

Bertuldez was also injured in the accident.

Six passengers of the van - Faisa Guiabar, 24, Intan Dabpil, 70, Abutazil Tato, 80, Junjun Durande, 20, Bai Puti Lauban Latip, 50, and Evelyn Remasin 29 - were also rushed to a hospital due to injuries in the head and other parts of their bodies.

The injured Betuldez first voluntarily turned himself in to the North Upi municipal police and surrendered his driver’s license and the registration documents of his ill-fated van before asking to be rushed to a hospital for treatment.