GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews/07 Jan.) — Fifteen people were injured in a collision of two passenger buses from the same company along the national highway in nearby Koronadal City early Tuesday morning.
Olimpio Par, operations manager of the Yellow Bus Line (YBL) Inc., said two of their bus units plying the upper valley area of South Cotabato province collided head-on while traversing a narrow stretch of the highway in Barangay Paraiso in Koronadal at around 5:20 a.m.
He said the bus drivers reportedly lost control of their vehicles due to the slippery road as a result of the continuing rains in the area.
A report released by the city police’s traffic section said the incident happened after a YBL bus en route to Surallah town in South Cotabato attempted to overtake a tricycle.
The driver of the bus, which had only two passengers, failed to notice another YBL bus unit coming from the opposite direction that alighted from a curve ahead of the highway.
The second bus unit, which had 20 passengers, was on its way to the company’s main terminal in Koronadal.
“Based on the initial report from our personnel, the slippery road mainly caused the accident. But we will conduct further investigation to determine what really happened,” Par said in a radio interview.
He said the two passengers of the first bus and 13 others from the second unit sustained various injuries and were immediately rushed to the South Cotabato Medical Specialists Hospital in Koronadal.
But he said most of them only suffered “slight injuries” and were released by the hospital after receiving treatment.
“We shouldered the medical expenses of the victims and provided them some assistance,” he said, adding that they immediately pulled out the involved bus units from the highway to facilitate the normal flow of traffic.
Par said the incident was the first so far this year involving their units and assured that they will make the necessary adjustments to prevent it from happening again.
“We’ve been continually upgrading our fleets to provide comfortable travel to our passengers and make sure that our units are road worthy,” he added. (MindaNews)