2 dead, 8 hurt in Zamboanga Sibugay highway mishap

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Two died while eight others were badly hurt when the truck carrying them turned turtle in a stretch of a national highway in Naga town in Zamboanga Sibugay Sunday.

The fatalities, Pastra Jain, 47, and Hashim Antol, 53, were both declared by attending physicians as dead on arrival in a hospital where emergency responders rushed them for treatment.

The Naga Municipal Police Station announced Monday that Jain and Antol and eight others were riding a brown Ford Ranger pickup truck that rolled over twice on a concrete highway in Barangay Baga in Naga after one of its front tires exploded.

Injured driver Jomar Abdurahman, 38, had told police investigators that he lost control of the wheel after the vehicle's left front tire blew up, causing the accident.

Seven other passengers of the ill-fated pickup truck — Sanjibar, 29, Anhar, 31, and Ambrin, 43, all surnamed Abdurahman, May Sarah Antol, 52, Hamid Alsree, 57, Nurhani Alsree, 51 and Shariffa Marjona Alsree, 21 — were also hurt in the mishap, now confined in a hospital.