GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/27 March) – Five persons were killed while one was seriously injured when a Multicab passenger van collided with a trailer truck along the national highway in nearby Koronadal City dawn on Monday.
A report from the Koronadal City police station said the white Multicab was on its way to Tupi town when it crashed into the
10-wheeler Prime Mover truck that suddenly blocked its path at a portion of the highway in Purok Pag-asa, Barangay Carpenter Hill in Koronadal City past 4 a.m.
The four passengers of the Multicab, with license plate MDW 135, were identified as couple Domingo and Maria Jean Farochelin, their son Carlo and neighbor Ramon Dollente. They were killed instantly.
Its driver, Joel Alvarez, died about two hours later while being treated at the South Cotabato Provincial Hospital.
The five victims were all residents of Barangay Kauran, Ampatuan town in Maguindanao province.
Juanito Villaran, the trailer truck’s driver, told reporters that they were cruising the national highway towards the Koronadal City proper when a motorcycle they were trailing reportedly crashed into a roadside barrier.
“I immediately hit the brakes and eluded the motorcycle but I lost control of the truck and it blocked the other lane of the highway,” he said in the vernacular.
Villaran said he later saw the Multicab hitting their truck.
The truck driver immediately surrendered to responding elements from the Koronadal City police station’s traffic section.
Reports said the Multican, which plies the Ampatuan, Maguindanao-Tacurong City route, was on its way to Barangay Polonuling
in Tupi to buy fresh banana.
The trailer truck, which was carrying the license plate MWD 195, was dispatched to the area by a trading firm based in this city. (Allen V. Estabillo / MindaNews)