2 dead, 24 hurt as truck bumps into jeepload of churchgoers

By Jennifer P. Rendon

Two persons died while 24 others were injured after a 10-wheeler dump truck plowed into a jeepney in Leganes, Iloilo morning of May 14, 2022.

Rene Consular, 45, and Limuel Magbanua, 33, both residents of Barangay Tamuan, Janiuay, Iloilo, were instantly killed in the road mishap.

Staff Sergeant Jhon Mark Tuazon, Leganes PNP traffic investigator, said the fatalities succumbed to head injuries.

Eighteen of the 24 injured passengers suffered minor injuries and did not need hospital confinement after receiving firs aid treatment.

The other six are confined to different hospitals.

Tuazon said that Paulino Alcampor Jr., the jeepney driver, was the only person who was unscathed in the incident.

The passenger jeepney was hired to ferry a family from Tamuan village to hear mass in Leganes town proper.

“It’s a religious vow for them to hear mass every month of May,” Tuazon said.

They were supposed to proceed to a beach resort in Oton to have a belated birthday celebration of a family member after the mass.

The family hired two jeepneys for the occasion

The second jeepney was tailing the one that figured in the road mishap.

According to Tuason, the first jeepney was passing through an intersection at Barangay San Vicente, Leganes around 6 a.m. of Saturday when the truck hit the jeepney’s rear portion.

The truck driver, Ivan Casabuena, denied that he was drunk during the incident. He claimed to have not immediately noticed the jeepney.

Tuazon theorized that the 33-year-old Casabuena, a resident of Barangay Ipil, Calinog, was speeding and it was too late for him to apply the brakes to evade the collision.

The truck had just unloaded sand and gravel in Iloilo City and was on its way to Calinog town when the incident happened.

Casabuena suffered a wound on the left side of his face after passengers from the second jeepney allegedly mobbed him.

Someone allegedly hit his face with a rock.

Tuazon said there are initial talks for settlement between the families of the victims and the truck operator.