Van kills 3 in NCotabato

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - A wayward van plowed through a group of minors walking along a national highway in Midsayap town Wednesday, killing three on the spot and leaving two others badly injured.

Investigators identified the fatalities as Donarth James Custodio, 12, Jake Lloyd Alferez,  14, and Christian Jay Romero, 15.

The victims were walking along a stretch of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Barangay Sadaan in Midsayap when they were rammed by a speeding passenger van, bearing license plate MVX -766, coming from the opposite end of the highway.

Two other adolescents, Kenneth Silverio, and John Ryan Mendoza, were seriously injured in the accident, now fighting for their lives at a hospital.

More than a dozen other children trailing behind the victims, who were on their way to another barangay to watch a basketball game, survived the accident unscathed by jumping into a roadside ditch when they saw the van ram their companions.

The driver of the passenger van, Patrick Dumas, 29, immediately yielded to the local police and voluntarily turned in his driver's license and the registration documents of his vehicle.

Dumas told investigators he lost control of his vehicle when one of its front tires exploded while maneuvering a downhill curve just meters away from the scene of the accident.