2 dead, 5 hurt in Cotabato road crash

COTABATO CITY — A tricycle driver and one of his passengers died while five others were injured in a road mishap in Barangay New Rizal, Mlang town, Cotabato province, on Saturday night, August 8.

Officials of the Mlang Municipal Police Station said on Sunday, August 9, that the tricycle driver, Jovito Autillo Sr., and his passenger, Yolanda Cordero, died in the accident.

The crash also left five other tricycle passengers badly injured. They were identified as Cecil Autillo, Felinor Sigura and three minors. The injured passengers are currently confined at the Mlang Medical Specialist Center in Mlang, one of the 17 towns in Cotabato province.

Lt. Col. Realan Mamon, municipal police chief, said on Sunday that the victims were riding in Autillo’s tricycle when it was hit by a 10-wheeler cargo truck traveling in the opposite direction along the highway in Purok Acacia, Barangay New Rizal, Mlang.

The truck driver, Edmund Norberte, a resident of Barangay San Emmanuel in Tacurong City, voluntarily surrendered to police and barangay officials who responded to the incident. He also turned over his driver's license to authorities.

Mamon and local executives said Norberte was driving the truck to Davao City when it figured in the accident along an unlit stretch of the highway in Purok Acacia, Barangay New Rizal.