Baby, 2 others killed in North Cotabato highway crash

NORTH Cotabato, Philippines - A seven-month-old baby girl and two others were killed when a passenger bus rammed a tractor pulling a trailer full of hitchhikers before hitting a stree along a highway in Aleosan town on Friday.

Inspector Orlito Patrona, Aleosan municipal police chief, said the other two fatalities were an old woman and bus conductor Danilo Daniel, who died while being rushed to the provincial hospital in Kidapawan City.

Bus driver Loreto Villarama and 19 others were injured in the accident. They are now undergoing medication in different hospitals.

Patrona said Villarama, while driving at a portion of the Cotabato-Davao Highway in Barangay Pagangan in west of Aleosan, lost control of the Weena Bus bearing body number B-122 and rammed the tractor that was pulling a trailer loaded with agricultural products and hitchhikers.

The bus swerved and crashed into a big mango tree along the highway.

Patrona said the bus was bound for Cotabato City from Pikit town.

Patrona said the local government unit of Aleosan has called on the management of the Weena Bus, the lone transportation firm serving the Cotabato-Kidapawan route, to indemnify the families of the three fatalities in the accident and help pay for the treatment of the injured victims.