Antipas tragedy: 17 die in Cotabato road accident
12 passengers and a driver burned to death after the van they were riding in got hit by a rampaging dump truck as both drivers negotiated a sloping curve at Purok 2, Luhong village of Antipas town, Cotabato province. (PHOTO TAKEN MARCH 25, 2024 BY MARK DALE MONTENEGRO)
KIDAPAWAN CITY –(UPDATED, March 26, 2024) At least 17 individuals died in a road accident in Cotabato involving a passenger van and a dump truck.
The accident occurred along the national highway in Purok 2, Barangay Luhong, Antipas town in Cotabato at 12:48 p.m. on Monday, March 25, 2024.
Major Godofredo Tupas, Antipas town chief of police, said the passenger van had just left the terminal of Antipas and was on its way to Kidapawan city when it got hit by an orange HOWO truck at Purok 2, Luhong village, about 10 kilometers from Antipas terminal.
The collision killed about 15 passengers and the driver of the Toyota Hiace van when it caught fire during the accident.
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A passing motorbike was also torched after it got involved in the collision and its driver burned to death, according to Tupas.
Tupas said both vehicles, traveling from the opposite lanes, were negotiating a slightly curved and sloping highway when the dump truck driver lost control and rammed into the van, which had at least 15 passengers onboard.
“We are still investigating what triggered the collision, so far 17 are confirmed dead,” Tupas told the Inquirer on Monday afternoon.
“The area is accident prone,” said Castro Verdeblanco, head of the Antipas municipal disaster risk reduction and management council.
Among the fatalities was a child who was thrown out of the van and later expired in the hospital, police investigators said.
As of 6:10 p.m. on Monday, the municipality’s police investigators were still piecing together the details of the incident and could not yet say if there were survivors in the accident, said Tupas.
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