Road roller operator rolled over by unit in South Cotabato dies

COTABATO CITY — A road roller operator died after he was rolled over by the unit he was operating in an unusual accident in T’boli town, South Cotabato province on Thursday.

Municipal police chief Lt. Col. Verlin Pampolina told reporters on Friday that the fatality, Jun Ewong Lumbong, a T’boli tribesman, a longtime worker of the T’boli municipal government, was an experienced heavy equipment operator.

Pampolina said Lumbong, who was flattening a downhill stretch of a dirt road for concreting in Barangay Talcon in T’boli, jumped from the road roller he was operating when he sensed that its hydraulic steering system malfunctioned, but had a bad fall and got rolled over by the rear roller of the equipment instead.

The local government unit of T’boli promised to provide Lumbong’s family with a financial grant for his burial.