An accident on the Skyway in Manila left at least 17 people dead and 16 others injured. The incident involved a bus which plunged off the elevated highway and fell onto a van passing below on Monday morning.
The passenger bus veered off the elevated road called the Skyway on Monday. It then fell onto a van 32 feet below in the suburban city of Paranaque. TV images showed several bodies strewn around the bus wreckage. The van was not recognizable as it was reduced to a pile of smashed, white metal, the Associated Press reports.
It is not clear what caused the bus to veer off the highway but the road was wet from rain. Driver Irene Sisperes was driving on the highway at 50 mph when she saw the bus pass her car, going between 62 and 68 mph. Sisperes said it was dark and raining when the incident occurred.
"After a few meters, I saw the bus fall and I shouted, 'The bus fell, the bus fell'," she told DZMM radio. She saw the damaged railing of the highway and reported what happened at the toll gate.
According to earlier reports, 21 people had died and 20 others were injured but the numbers were later reduced to 17 dead and several others injured. The bodies were taken to a local funeral parlor after being taken from hospitals and the crash site.
Another 16 victims who were injured were taken to five area hospitals. Early reports also said the driver of the van and the bus were killed but doctors said the drivers were among the injured and were not killed. The bus driver was in critical condition and the van driver had minor injuries.
Ryan Bresa, one of the passengers who survived, believes that the bus was going too fast and the driver tried to keep the vehicle from serving before it tumbled off the highway. The bus was from the Don Mariano Transit Corp. Winston Ginez, chairman of the government's Land Transportation, Franchising and Regulatory Board ordered all of the company's 78 buses to be suspended for 30 days.
This wasn't the only accident to take place on the Skyway. In 2011, a bus from another company fell from the Skyway in the same area. Three people died and four others were injured in that incident.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
