The Ceres bus bound for Antique from Iloilo City fell into the ravine in Barangay Igbucagay in Hamtic town, Philippines at around 4pm today, Tuesday, December 5.
There were 53 passengers of which 25 were killed, including the driver and conductor, according to Philippines News Agency.
Photographs from the scene show the bus wrecked at the bottom of the steep fall in the province of Antique on Panay Island in the Philippines, as rescue workers scurry around.
In an interview, Denise Suropia of the Antique Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (PDRRMO) said the bus overshot the permanent concrete barrier on the road above the ravine.
“Per information we had received, the Ceres bus had a mechanical failure that it overshot the barrier,” she said.
Survivors were brought to the Angel Salazar Memorial General Hospital in San Jose de Buenavista for treatment.
Rescuers remain at the site “assisting in the retrieval operation,” Suropia said.
In April 2019 it was announced that authorities would inspect a 30-metre ravine on the same stretch of road after another Ceres bus went into it, killing three passengers in an eerily similar incident.
“We identify (it) as a black spot because there was already an occurrence of a similar type two or three times in a given year,” said the assistant chief of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
