Sacada Pieta. Two couples –sugarcane plantation workers– who were on board a truck that fell into a ravine in Tabogon town comfort each other while being transported to the hospital.
MONETARY aid will be extended to the families of three sugarcane workers who died when the truck they were riding in fell into a ravine in Tabogon Saturday morning.
Cebu Vice Governor Agnes Magpale said they will also shoulder the burial expenses aside from giving P5,000 each to the families of Warren Cañas, Juvelyn Puebla and Romeo Ybañez who died in an accident on their way to a sugarcane farm in Bogo City.
“Our social welfare office is already checking on the status of the victims including the 38 injured. We will offer assistance, that’s automatic,” Magpale told Cebu Daily News.
She was on her way to Bogo City to attend the launching of a housing project for victims of supertyphoon Yolanda (international name Haiyan) when she passed by the accident area. She alerted the mayor of Tabogon who immediately sent medics.
“I was actually there in Bogo City Hospital where five of the victims were brought. When I learnt that many were injured, I also called our social welfare staff to wait for the others in Vicente Sotto (Memorial Medical Hospital),” she said.
The accident took place when a cargo truck tried to overtake a truck carrying sugarcane workers along a curve at the national highway in barangay Ilihan.
The rear tire of the cargo truck hit the bumper of the first truck, which slammed into the railings and fell into the ravine with 41 passengers on board.
The Cebu Provincial Board (PB) has yet to discuss the rising number of major road accidents in Cebu’s highways in the past two months.
“Our roads have improved and that’s probably a reason why these drivers are overspeeding. But definitely, we are concerned with this in the PB,” she said.
Three weeks ago, three were killed while 16 persons were injured when a 10-wheeler delivery truck carrying beer bottles lost control of its brakes hitting a passenger multicab before crashing into a computer shop in Barili.
A week ago, a packed passenger bus fell on its side in Badian, killing two on board.