AT LEAST 15 students died and dozens were injured, two of them critically, after a bus they were riding lost control and crashed into an electrical pole on a highway in Tanay, Rizal.
Initial reports from the Tanay Municipal Disaster Office said 10 of the students died on the spot while the remaining victims died in different hospitals where they were taken following the accident that occurred at 8:50 a.m. in Barangay Sampaloc.
The bus driver, Julian Lacurda, also died in the crash.
Carlos Inofre, chief of the Tanay Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, said the Panda Coach was on a downhill road along Sitio Bayucal in Barangay Sampaloc when the driver lost control after its brakes failed.
Inofre said the bus carrying about 45 students was fast.
“The impact was too strong and the roof of the bus almost got detached,” Inofre said.
The victims were students from Bestlink College of the Philippines, who were on their way to attend a camping tour at the Sacramento Adventure Camp in Tanay, Rizal as part of the National Service Training Program.
The bus was the ninth vehicle in a convoy that left Bestlink College in Quezon City at about 6 a.m. heading for Tanay, Rizal.
Berlito Bati Jr., training officer of the Tanay disaster agency, said the injured students were brought to different hospitals in Camp Mateo Capinpin; the Tanay Provincial Hospital, and the Tanay Community Hospital. Others needing more serious medical attention were taken to Amang Rodriguez Memorial Medical Center.
Dr. Manuel Bueno at the Amang Rodriguez Medical Center said the 19 students—13 male and six females, were in the operating room undergoing serious procedure. Three were in critical condition while one died.
Eight other buses reached the resort without incident.
