COTABATO CITY — Four individuals died while 13 others, including 3 children, were injured in an accident involving a van and a pick-up truck in Barangay Apopong, General Santos City on Sunday.
Senior officials of the General Santos Police Office told reporters on Monday that van driver Rasol Angkob Adam, 56, his passengers Mambai Adam Dimaraw, 66, Mona Butuan Salilaguia, 62, and the 30-year-old Bai Intan Abdullah were all declared dead on arrival at a hospital were emergency responders brought them for treatment.
Brig. Gen. Arnold P. Ardiente, director of the Police Regional Office-12, said the van, bearing license plates NDC 5940, en route to Cotabato City, was hit head-on by a pick-up truck after it veered towards the left lane of the highway in Barangay Apopong.
Witnesses told investigators and barangay officials that they saw the speeding pick-up truck, with license plates LAM 1506, cut through the left lane of the route, hitting the van full of passengers.
The collision of the two vehicles left the 36-year-old driver of the pick-up truck, Harvey Ngalon Collado, and his four companions, three of whom were children, badly injured.
Ranking personnel of the General Santos City Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office had confirmed to reporters that eight passengers of the van were also seriously hurt in the accident. — John Felix M. Unson
