The death toll in the road accident in T’boli, South Cotabato, has reached 20, the Office of Civil Defense in SOCCSKSARGEN said on Tuesday afternoon.
OCD-12 regional director Minda Morante said nine other people were wounded in the accident, and that the victims were immediately brought to Upper Valley Hospital and the South Cotabato Provincial Hospital.
Agence France-Presse earlier said 15 people, including children, were killed Tuesday in T’boli when the flatbed truck they were riding in plummeted into a ravine.
The vehicle was bringing about 30 people home from a trip to the beach when the driver lost control in the latest deadly crash on the nation’s dangerous roads.
“Based on eyewitness accounts, the truck lost its brakes. We will conduct further investigations on the actual cause,” T’boli town police investigator George Tabayan told AFP.
The dead included children aged between one to six years old, with at least 11 other people rushed to hospital due to their injuries.
The group had come from a swimming party at a beach in a neighboring town and were on their way home when the accident occurred.
Deadly road accidents are common in the Philippines, where inadequately maintained buses and poorly trained drivers form the backbone of land transport options.
In June, 13 people including a bride-to-be were killed when the truck they were riding on after attending a traditional pre-wedding ceremony rolled over on a mountain road.
