13 killed in Philippine road crash

By AFP March 25, 2024 | 03:29 pm PT

General view of public and private vehicles on a road in Manila, Philippines, June 20, 2023. Photo by Reuters

At least 13 people were killed in the southern Philippines on Monday after a collision between a dump truck loaded with sand and a passenger van, local authorities said.

The incident happened in the afternoon on a major road in Antipas municipality in North Cotabato province on the second-largest island of Mindanao.

Thirteen bodies were recovered from the scene, fire officer Samuel Lumayon told AFP, but he warned the death toll could rise after a number of seriously injured people were taken to hospital.

Witnesses reported that the brakes of the truck appeared to fail before the collision happened, disaster official Mic Garfin told AFP.

Garfin said the van caught fire, possibly because of the impact of the crash.

Deadly road accidents are common in the Philippines, where drivers frequently flout the rules and vehicles are often poorly maintained or overloaded.