5 dead in South Cotabato collision – BusinessWorld Online
COTABATO CITY — Five individuals, including two women, died in an accident involving two motorcycles in a barangay in Tupi, South Cotabato at dusk Monday.
Officials of the Tupi Municipal Police Station (MPS) and the director of the Region 12 police, Brig. Gen. Arnold P. Ardiente, separately said on Tuesday that the fatalities were riding the two motorcycles that figured in the highway mishap.
Senior Master Sgt. Rea Mae B. Gatinao, spokesperson of the Tupi police force, said three of the victims, two of them women, died instantly from injuries caused by the accident.
The male driver of the other motorcycle and his companion also both died in a hospital where they were brought for treatment.
Ms. Gatinao, citing accounts of witnesses and police probers who responded to the incident, said the speeding motorcycle veered towards the other lane of the highway in Sitio Tulacabong in Barangay Crossing Rubber and hit head-on the other motorcycle, ridden by the two women and their male companion who all died immediately at the scene.
The two motorcycle drivers who perished in the accident do not have driving licenses, according to police investigators and barangay officials. Their badly damaged motorcycles are now in the custody of the Tupi MPS.
Ms. Gatinao and Mr. Ardiente both refuted claims that the two motorcycles were racing at an unlit stretch of the highway in Barangay Crossing Rubber.
Mr. Ardiente said the accident was a head-on collision of two motorcycles from the opposite directions of the highway. — John Felix M. Unson
