BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO
ILOILO City – A passenger jeepney bound for this city from the town of Miag-ao, Iloilo fell off a bridge in Barangay 9, Tigbauan around 5:30 p.m. yesterday, injuring 20 passengers.
Some of the passengers were students of Miag-ao’s Southern Iloilo Polytechnic College.
They were brought to the hospital in nearby Guimbal town while others were taken to the Western Visayas Medical Center in Mandurriao, Iloilo City.
The jeepney fell some 10 feet below the Sibalom Bridge.
According to jeepney driver Jose Rolly Fildad, 32, of Barangay Maninila, Miag-ao, the vehicle suffered a mechanical malfunction as it was crossing the bridge.
“The drag link malfunctioned. I tried to stop the vehicle but I couldn’t,” Fildad said over the radio.
In automotive technology, a drag link is a major component of a vehicle’s steering system that turns the vehicle’s wheels.
Fildad was thankful that most of his passengers sustained slight injuries only.
He was driving slowly, he said.
Fildad was slightly injured, too.
“The passengers were safe but brought to hospitals for further examination,” said Inspector Henry Gaborno, deputy police chief of Tigbauan.
He identified some of the passengers as Salvador Lacerna, 17, of Barangay Cubay, Miag-ao; Ricardo Noniel, 48, of Miag-ao; and Armando Espera, 37, of Jaro, Iloilo City.
Fildad’s red jeepney had plate number FWE-924.
The Tigbauan police is investigating the accident.
Road safety is considered a public health priority by the Department of Health. Accidents of all types – including road traffic crashes – ranked fourth among the causes of mortality in all ages, according to the Philippine Health Statistics in 2003.
Road traffic crashes constituted the second leading cause of injury death, the same statistics showed.
Along national roads and highways, 1,185 deaths and 5,870 non-fatal injuries were reported in 2006, according to the 2007 Traffic Accident Report Application System of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police – Traffic Management Group statistics as of 2007 showed that traffic accidents were caused mainly by driver’s errors (28 percent), vehicle’s mechanical defects (16 percent), over speeding (13 percent), and self accident (seven percent)./PN
