Steph Deschamps / July 12, 2024
Eleven members of the same family returning home from a wake died on Thursday when their pickup collided with a bus in the northern Philippines, police said.
The accident occurred in the early hours of the morning at a crossroads in the municipality of Abulug, in the province of Cagayan.
The pickup, a Toyota Hilux, was carrying 14 people when it crashed into a bus at an intersection with a freeway, police said.
Only three people in the vehicle survived, police inspector Antonio Palattao told AFP.
There were no fatalities on board the bus, but the drivers were seriously injured and 23 other people suffered minor injuries, he said. "The driver of the Toyota Hilux was not familiar with the area and did not know he was approaching a freeway," police inspector Jun-jun Torio told AFP.
Fatal road accidents are common in this Southeast Asian archipelago, where traffic regulations are frequently ignored and vehicles are often poorly maintained or overloaded.