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Monday, October 30, 2006
17 die in North Cotabato town accident
MAKILALA -- Four more people died in a hospital after they were hit by a truck, bringing the death toll in the road accident to 17 in a southern town still grieving over a deadly bomb attack, an official said Sunday.
Fifteen other people were injured in Saturday's accident in the farming village of Malasila in North Cotabato province's Makilala town, said Makilala Mayor Honofre Respicio.
The 10-wheeler truck, filled with gravel and sand for a construction site, was on a downhill road when its brakes failed and the driver lost control.
The truck slammed into a row of 10 parked vehicles, as well as revelers gathered on the roadside for a village religious festival, Respicio said.
Police said 13 people were initially killed in the accident and four more died overnight in two hospitals. Four of those wounded, including the truck driver, remained in critical condition in a hospital, they said.
The accident instantly killed a number of revelers, scattering their bodies on the grassy roadside before horrified relatives and friends, Respicio said.
"The impact was so strong it hurled some people out of the parked vehicles," he told The Associated Press by telephone.
"I've told our people we must face reality and life must go on, but maybe we should pray more, harder to stop this series of unfortunate events," he said.
The accident happened just three weeks after a powerful bomb killed six people and wounded 29 others in Makilala's main public square as the town celebrated its founding anniversary.
Police have blamed Filipino and Indonesian Muslim militants for the October 10 bombing in Makilala, an impoverished banana- and rubber-producing town 950 kilometers southeast of Manila. (AP)
(October 30, 2006 issue)
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