Bus firm's franchise suspended
BAGUIO CITY -- Four units of Eso-Nice Bus Lines are placed under preventive suspension after one of its passenger buses plunged into a ravine in Banangan, Sablan, Benguet on Wednesday, killing 41.
An Eso Nice bus with plate number AVB 549 had 49 passengers on board when it drove off a 100-foot cliff around 9:20 a.m. Wednesday.
Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) Regional Director Federico Mandapat Jr. ordered the immediate preventive suspension of the bus with franchise number 9601-1013, together with three other units.
Under preventive suspension, Eso-Nice bus units with the same franchise number as that of the wrecked bus in Sablan will not be allowed to travel and convey passengers, said Mandapat.
He said the sanction will take effect until all buses of the company undergo roadworthiness test. If the units pass the roadworthiness test, the DOTC will allow them to ply their regular routes.
Mandapat, who was in Manila as of this posting, told Sun.Star Baguio he will not tolerate negligence on the part of the bus company as lives were already sacrificed because of the accident.
He said roadworthiness has been the focus of the agency in the past months with the proposed construction of a Motor Vehicle Inspection Station that would help eliminate road coffins, which refer to public utility vehicles, including buses and taxis not anymore fit for public conveyance.
Survivors
In the accident Wednesday, nine people, including a 10-year-old boy, survived and eight were taken to hospitals, said police chief Wilben Mayor of Benguet province.
Mayor said most of the victims were pinned to death while others were thrown out as the bus tumbled down.
Working into the night, emergency workers recovered the last of the 41 bodies from the twisted wreckage, said regional disaster agency director Olivia Mercado-Luces.
Twenty-six have been identified so far, including four members of a Filipino American family who were on their way back to the US after visiting relatives in Baguio City. An Indian national living in the Philippines also died.
The victims' remains, including a toddler's, were put in body bags on the highway and were later taken to funeral parlors.
The bus zoomed between a tree and a house and plunged into the ravine, Mayor said. The driver, who survived with a broken leg, would be investigated, he added.
John Patrick Flores, the bus fare collector, said the brakes of the bus failed as the driver was negotiating a downhill curve.
He said the driver was aiming to hit a lamppost to stop the bus from falling but missed.
"I jumped off the bus to the side of the road before the bus plunged into the ravine," Flores said. He suffered only minor bruises.
He said he was the first person to reach the bus and carried the 10-year-old boy with a broken leg up the ravine. Local residents helped rescue other passengers, eight of whom were brought to hospital in Baguio City.
Flores said the bus was not speeding as it had just dropped off a passenger and picked up another a short distance away from where the vehicle plunged.
Accidents in the area are common because of poorly maintained vehicles and roads.
Palace's response
But President Benigno Aquino III, after learning about the bus mishap, assured the reconstruction, redesigning and further improvement of the different roads in the country to prevent more road accidents in the future.
He said he already talked to Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson on the status of the different roads and highways in the country.
One measure being considered is ensuring that the fees collected from the Motor Vehicle Users' Charge are used to improve road and highway projects.
Aquino also said that the different road systems being operated by different branches of government also pose a problem.
The national roads are supervised by the National Government while those considered as provincial, municipal, and barangay roads are operated and maintained by the local government units.
The interconnections between these roads are sometimes uneven and the designs are poor contributing to road safety hazards, the President said.
Aquino cited as example the multi-lane national highways that suddenly become two-lane provincial roads without prior warning to motorists that pass.
The government vowed to continue the investigation on the accident, as well as on the bus company's insurance coverage, passenger capacity and maintenance. (JM Agreda of Sun.Star Baguio/AP/JMR/Sunnex)