57 survive bus fall in Atok: Marcos Highway 'killer bend' claims 4 more lives

TUBA, Benguet – The “killer bend” of Marcos Highway in Barangay Badiwan here claimed four more lives after a Manila-bound truck carrying seven tons of vegetables lost its brakes and landed on its side Tuesday night.

This, as 57 people cheated death when the Baguio-bound Jack’s Transport passenger bus they were riding in fell down a 30-feet ravine along Halsema Highway in Atok, Benguet Wednesday afternoon.

In the Marcos Highway incident, police named the fatalities as truck helper Albert Flora, driver Rolando Carag, Pio Concencio and Junjun Sabili.

Injured were Catherine Ortiz, Aida Maslang, and Laura Castro, who were all rushed to the Baguio General Hospital and Medical Center.

In 2005, a Byron bus, which apparently also lost its brakes, turned upside down after it rammed into a huge boulder at the “killer bend,” leaving 12 of its passengers dead.

In 2007, a bus carrying students of a Bicol university who had just come from an educational tour in Baguio City, also suffered the same fate.

Its driver and two passengers, including a child, died in the accident.

In Camp Dangwa, Benguet, Chief Supt. Orlando Pestano, regional police director said it was fortunate the passengers in the Atol incident sustained only minor which enabled them to join their relatives for the New Year’s Eve revelry.

Most of the passengers said they came from Mountain Province and northern Benguet to join their relatives in Baguio and the capital town of La Trinidad in celebrating the new year when the incident occurred.

Initial police investigation showed the Jack’s Transport bus bearing license plate AVA 611 and body number 1008 was negotiating the descending and winding road from Bontoc, Mountain Province when its brake system encountered mechanical trouble.

Michael Mang-awan, the bus driver, maneuvered the vehicle and slammed it into the mountain side to lessen its speed, but it skidded down the descending road and fell into the ravine, its rear landing first.

Police said 15 of the injured were immediately discharged from the Benguet General Hospital while the rest were confined.

The bus company assured the victims it will extend assistance to them, especially payment of their accumulated hospital bills.

The portion of the Halsema Highway where the bus fell – Kilometer 24 in Calicing – is accident-prone section because of its descending and ascending features.