A total of 15 passengers of a passenger multicab were injured–two of them seriously–after their vehicle was rammed by a 10-wheeler cargo truck along sitio Campaclan, Sibulan town at 6:30 a.m. Thursday.
Denmark Guhilde, 12, of Campaclan, Sibulan town and Mario Torres, 43, of Looc, Sibulan, and 15 others were on board the multicab when their vehicle was hit by a speeding Isuzu cargo truck. Both Guhilde and Torres were directly hit by the truck as they were standing at the rear portion of the overloaded multicab, police said.
Truck driver Ijie Nacilla, of Hilaitan, Guihulngan City, claimed that he was speeding when the multicab in front of him suddenly pulled over to pick up a passenger. He said he applied his brakes, but the truck could not stop before hitting the rear portion of the multicab.
All the passengers of the multicab were brought to the Silliman University Medical Center. Seven of them are minors and students of high schools in the city, and one is a college student.
The impact caused injuries to all the passengers except one — Ruperto Girasol, of Looc, Sibulan, who jumped before the impact.
The truck was loaded with products from Manila via Bacolod and Mabinay to be delivered to the Universal Robina Corporation in Tinago, Dumaguete City.
The minor victims are Marnel Piñero, 13; Ericka Panoy, 7; Diane Mae Enclonar, 15; Elisa Basco, 13; Princess Labata, 13; Jean Claud Mebin, 11; and Hanah Jane Tomias, 19, student of Saint Paul University.
The other passengers are Joaquina Oyos, Ronilo Sorilla, Mryna Panoy, Bryan Lenihan, Donha Caballero, Romeo Lopez, John Rey Paquig.