MANILA – Tragedy struck when three members of a family of a returning overseas Filipino worker (OFW) and five others were killed while 42 others were injured in a head-on collision between two commuter buses along the national highway in Quezon province, Central Luzon, police reported on Monday.
An initial report reaching the Philippine National Police (PNP) national headquarters in suburban Quezon City, Metro Manila said that among those killed were the three-year-old daughter of the OFW, along with her mother and grandmother.
Police identified the girl as Rizzy Baguva, mother Rean and grandmother Emelina who succumbed to serious body injuries.
Police said the three were on their way to Manila to welcome the OFW who was to arrive at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport later on Monday when the mishap occurred.
The three fatalities were among the passengers of a Bragais Bus Lines commuter bus bound for Manila from Albay province in the Bicol Region when it collided head-on with a Lucena Bus Lines vehicle along the Maharlika national highway near the capital city of Lucena in Quezon province shortly after midnight on Monday.
Of the eight fatalities, seven were aboard the Bragais bus while the eighth was a passenger of the Lucena Bus Lines, according to the police.
Police expressed fear of an increase in the number of fatalities because many of those hurt suffered serious injuries, based on reports from the nearest hospitals where they were rushed by rescuers.
Police added that they could not pinpoint who was to blame because there were conflicting versions on how the accident happened.
One version was that the Lucena bus which was bound south for Lucena City was trying to overtake a vehicle when it collided head-on with the Bragais which was coming from the opposite direction.
The other version was that the two buses were racing to pass a narrow bridge along the national highway when the collision occurred, police said.
But police added that although the collision happened at early dawn, traffic along the highway was busy because it is being used 24 hours by cars, trucks, buses and other vehicles either bound as far as the Bicol Region or Manila.
Police also cited belief from people living nearby that that portion of the highway where the collision had occurred was “jinxed†because it was not the first time that an accident had occurred there.
Police likewise reported that they and volunteer rescuers had a difficult time retrieving the bodies of those killed and the injured from the Bragais bus which “crumbled like an accordion,†based on the testimony of one of the rescuers.
The two drivers surrendered while the owners of the two bus firms assured they would extend financial assistance to those who died as well as shoulder the hospitalization and medical expenses of the injured, police said.
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