TIGBAO,
ZAMBOSUR: A bus owned by Rural Transit Mindanao, Inc. (RTMI) with plate number
JVH-453 travelling from Zamboanga City for Pagadian fell into a ravine around
10:35 in the evening, Wednesday, in Brgy Maragang, this municipality, reports
reaching Misamis News Digest said.
Senior
Police Officer 4 Eleazar Carcallas of the local PNP said two persons died on
the spot, one of them he named as Macario Omac, 46, driver of the ill-fated
bus.
The
other dead passenger was identified as Baharan Maulod, Basilan Provincial
Officer of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
Further,
17 more passengers sustained severe injuries as investigators said, quoting witnesses
account, that Omac lost control of the steering wheel while negotiating the smooth
road.
Investigators
likewise said the bus then rammed a concrete house before falling into a
10-meter deep ravine. No one among the occupants of the house, owned by
Ebenezer Racho, were either killed or wounded, it was gathered.
All
the injured were rushed to the Zamboanga del Sur Medical Center in Pagadian
City for treatment including the bus conductor identified as Rolando Simbahon,
30.
The
incident took place several hours after another RTMI bus figured in an accident
that killed a seven-year-old child and injured another in Brgy. Lumbia in
Pagadian City.