(Eagle News)–Twenty people, including children, were killed on Tuesday, Sept. 17, after the truck they were on fell off a cliff in South Cotabato.
A police report said the incident took place in Barangay Lamsalome in T’boli at 10:35 a.m.
In a Tweet, the Philippine Red Cross said the truck, with plate number WNN 207, was on its way to Surallah from General Santos when the incident took place.
The dead included children aged between one to six years old. The injured were rushed to hospital due to their injuries.
The group had come from a swimming party at a beach in neighbouring town and were on their way home when the accident occurred.
The vehicle was bringing about 30 people home from a trip to the beach when the driver lost control near the town of T’boli 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.
Search and rescue operations are ongoing.
Authorities are still probing the incident.
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.
(with a report from Agence France Presse)
