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Bus
crash
kills
2 Two persons were killed and 20 others were injured when a northbound bus slid off the road and rolled down a steep ravine in San Andres town the other Tuesday. In a report to PNP provincial director Supt. Rolando O. Gonzales, San Andres police said the mishap occurred at 1:30 P.M. of Nov. 21 as the "Boknoy" minibus, bearing plate number EVD-787, was on its way to Pandan from Virac after stopping by the San Andres pier. The bus was traversing a relatively flat portion of the national road in sitio Talahid, barangay Cabungahan, when driver Adel Martinez y Palero, 38, single and of Tubli, Caramoran, maneuvered the bus to avoid running over a pile of stones at the right, mountainside portion of the road. In so doing, the bus passed on the left lane but its heavy weight caused the road shoulder, already softened by several days of rain, to give way. The vehicle and its cargo of terrified passengers slowly slid off the road and tumbled down the steep, 40-foot embankment, resting crushed and beyond repair near the seashore at the bottom of the ravine. Due to get married this coming January to his fiancee in Tubli, Martinez was thrown out through the windshield as the bus rolled down the cliffside, his torso pierced by a tree branch. The other fatality who also sat in front, Debbie Vallespin y Lara, 31, married and a native of Tubli, was crushed by the weight of the vehicle. An employee of JRS Express in Manila, she was reportedly overjoyed in her return to her hometown as she was slated to transfer to her company's branch in Virac. Injured and taken to the Eastern Bicol Medical Center after their rescue by barangay officials were Noel Cortuna y Zuniega, 25, married, a heavy equipment operator from Salvacion, Caramoran; Eufemia Posada y Tenerife, 38, a housekeeper from Sabangan, Caramoran; Rolando Betao y Bayos, 29, married, a carpenter from Iba, Zambales temporarily residing in San Isidro Village, Virac;Edgardo Portacio y Dumawan, 35, married and a construction worker from Zambales; Francisco Zuniega y del Agua, 58, married and from Tubli; bus owner and operator Julio Publico y Templonuevo, 38, married and of Sabangan; Domingo Vallespin, Jr. y Tatel, 31, married and the bus conductor from Tubli; Fatima Zafe y Olino, 16, married, of Lubas, San Andres; Crisanto San Juan Sr. y Nunez,74, retired public school teacher from Tubli; Jorge Idayta, 36, married, from Tubli; Renato Talion y Brizo, 46, a farmer from Datag; Rodel de Quiroz y Castillo, 9, Tubli; Margarito Vendicio Jr. y Hernandez, 36, married and an electrician from Tubli; Juan Borbe, 45, married and from Caramoran; Roberto de la Cruz y Aguilar, 53, married, Tubli; Bella Able, 32, married, of Mabini; Nicanor Dayawa y Lucero, 31, married and a Milaviga businessman; Ariel Talion y Burac, 36, a driver from Baybay, Caramoran; Arnulfo Able y Sapico, 34, married, from Mabini; and, Elena Interno y Alberto, 39, a housekeeper from Tubli. From his seat at the back section, passenger Ariel Talion said that the vehicle was maneuvering at a fairly straight portion of the national road near Cabungahan, San Andres when the driver allegedly moved left to the cliff edge in avoiding a small boulder. Softened by the incessant rains for the past days, the ground beneath the tire gave way, sending the truck slowly off the road and then rolling end over end until it rested mangled at the foot of the 30-meter cliff. He said that people from the barangay who ran to the road above the bus resting place could scarcely be heard by the victims.One of the passengers,a woman, lost hold of her two-month old baby as the bus plunged down. Luckily, the infant was snatched from certain death by Talion and survived with contusions and abrasions.The dead and the wounded were brought to EBMC aboard other vehicles courtesy of Cabungahan barangay officials and residents. Doctor were hard put attending to the injured, with patients lining up for ex-rays. The crash comes several months after a similar incident killed two people also along the same stretch of the national road in San Andres.
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