LA TRINIDAD, Philippines — At least 14 people, mostly elderly villagers, died when the brakes of an overloaded passenger van failed while the van was traveling on a winding road, sending it down a ravine in a mountain province in the northern Philippines, police said Wednesday.

Twenty-four other passengers, including the driver, were injured in the accident Tuesday afternoon in Balbalan town in Kalinga province, said police Chief Superintendent Rolando Nana.

Most of the dead were retired villagers in their 60s and 70s returning home after collecting their government pension from a bank. </s> LA TRINIDAD, Philippines — Philippine police say at least 14 people have died when the brakes of an overloaded passenger van failed while cruising a winding road, sending it down a ravine in a northern mountain province.

Police Chief Superintendent Rolando Nana says 24 other passengers, including the driver, were injured Tuesday afternoon in Balbalan town in Kalinga province. Some of the dead were poor elderly villagers returning home after collecting government cash dole-outs from a bank.

Police say 13 passengers were pinned to death while one other died on the way to a hospital after being retrieved from the 80-meter (262-foot) deep ravine.

Road accidents in the region have been blamed on weak enforcement of traffic rules, poorly maintained public transport and long-neglected upland roads.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> At least 14 dead as Philippine passenger van falls off cliff

LA TRINIDAD, Philippines (AP) — Philippine police say at least 14 people have died when the brakes of an overloaded passenger van failed while cruising a winding road, sending it down a ravine in a northern mountain province.

Police Chief Superintendent Rolando Nana says 24 other passengers, including the driver, were injured Tuesday afternoon in Balbalan town in Kalinga province. Some of the dead were poor elderly villagers returning home after collecting government cash dole-outs from a bank.

Police say 13 passengers were pinned to death while one other died on the way to a hospital after being retrieved from the 80-meter (262-foot) deep ravine.

Road accidents in the region have been blamed on weak enforcement of traffic rules, poorly maintained public transport and long-neglected upland roads. </s> LA TRINIDAD, Philippines (AP) — At least 14 people, mostly elderly villagers, died when the brakes of an overloaded passenger van failed while traveling on a winding road, sending it down a ravine in a mountain province in the northern Philippines, police said Wednesday.

Twenty-four other passengers, including the driver, were injured in the accident Tuesday afternoon in Balbalan town in Kalinga province, said Police Chief Superintendent Rolando Nana. Most of the dead were retired villagers in their 60s and 70s returning home after collecting their government pension from a bank.

Thirteen passengers were pinned to death while another died on the way to a hospital after being retrieved from the 80-meter-deep (262-foot-deep) ravine, police said.

Deadly road accidents in the region have been blamed on weak enforcement of traffic rules, poorly maintained public transport and long-neglected upland roads dangerously perched beside deep ravines. </s> Volunteers try to rescue an injured passenger after a bus apparently lost its brakes and plunged into a deep ravine killing dozens in Carranglan township, Nueva Ecija province in northern Philippines Tuesday, April 18, 2017.

Start the conversation, or Read more at The Beaumont Enterprise. </s> At least 26 people died when the brakes on the bus they were travelling in apparently failed and plunged into a deep ravine in the northern Philippines.

The rest of the more than 50 passengers were retrieved by rescuers who struggled with ropes to descend down the 24-metre-deep ravine to reach the wreckage in Nueva Ecija province's Carranglan town, said disaster-response officer Mark Raymond Cano.

Many of the passengers had serious injuries and were taken to hospitals, with parents being separated from their children in the confusion, officials said.

"One child here sat beside her mother. The mother was dead," said Dr Napoleon Obana of the Veterans Regional Hospital, where some of the injured were taken.

TV footage showed a line of rescuers and villagers, some holding on to a rope to climb up on a grassy slope with a victim on a stretcher.

A throng of villagers waited in a clearing above them to help pull the victim to safety.

Mr Cano said a preliminary investigation showed that the bus "lost its brakes and plunged down the ravine".

The spot along the downhill road beside the ravine is accident-prone. Tuesday's accident was the sixth in the area in recent years, a local village official told DZMM radio.

The impact from the plunge ripped the bus, which could no longer be distinguished at the bottom of the ravine, said Nueva Ecija's police chief, Antonio Yarra.

He said investigators could not yet talk to the still-stunned injured survivors to get more details on the accident.

Carranglan police chief Robert de Guzman said the bus from northern Isabela province was on its way to Ilocos Sur, a tobacco- and rice-growing region also in the mountainous northern Philippines, when it crashed shortly before noon in Nueva Ecija, about 124 miles north of Manila.

Poorly maintained passenger buses, inadequate road safety features and weak enforcement of local transport laws have been blamed for many vehicle accidents in the Philippines.

In February, a sightseeing bus carrying college students on a camping trip lost its brakes as it sped down a steep downhill road before smashing into a concrete electrical post in Tanay town in Rizal province east of Manila, killing 15 people. </s> At least 24 dead after bus plunges into Philippines ravine

At least 24 people have died after a bus plunged into a deep ravine in the Philippines, Sky News reported.

Rescuers used ropes to reach the wreckage in Carranglan, a town in Nueva Ecija province.

Authorities said 22 people had been injured, some of them seriously - and it is believed the brakes of the bus had malfunctioned.

The head of a local hospital, Dr Arlene Jara, said children were among those hurt.

The vehicle crashed shortly before midday as it travelled to Ilocos Sur - a rice and tobacco growing region in the mountainous north of the country, according to Carranglan police chief Robert de Guzman.

Police and local officials said it had dropped about 80ft (24m).

Although the bus had a capacity of 45, there were 60 passengers on board, Carranglan mayor Mary Abad told ABS-CBN television.

"The road is really risky," she said. "There are many ravines."

Mr de Guzman said the vehicle is "totally wrecked" - and told reporters that almost all of the passengers were found outside the bus.

The top of the vehicle appeared to have been ripped off, he added.

Officials said it was one of the worst accidents involving a vehicle in the country in years.

Other accidents have been blamed on poorly maintained buses, inadequate road safety measures and local transport laws being weakly enforced.

A bus carrying college students on a camping trip had brake problems on a steep downhill road in February.

Fifteen people died after it smashed into a concrete electrical post in Tanay town in Rizal province, east of Manila. </s> A bus crash in the central Philippines left 19 people dead and another 21 injured Tuesday night, according to police.

The passenger bus was headed to the Philippine capital Manila when it crashed through a guardrail and plunged off a cliff into a 5o-foot-deep ravine in Occidental Mindoro province, according to the Associated Press.

The driver was among those killed, and children are reportedly among the injured.

Police are investigating the cause of the accident and have not ruled out mechanical issues, a regional police spokesperson said.

The country’s public safety regulator responded Wednesday by suspending the licenses of 10 buses associated with the bus company for 30 days, according to the Philippines-based .

The Philippines has a high rate of road fatalities due to lax traffic law enforcement, poor safety regulations, and the abundance of older vehicles on its roads.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), 10,012 people were killed in traffic accidents in 2015, hundreds of them children, as the number of road-related fatalities has climbed steadily since 2006. </s> MANILA, Philippines — A passenger bus careened off a winding, dirt road and fell into a ravine south of the Philippine capital, killing 19 people and injuring 17 others, police said Wednesday.

The crash occurred Tuesday night in Sablayan town in Occidental Mindoro province as the bus was heading on a downhill stretch of a road that had been under repair. The bus struck a bridge railing before falling into the 15- to 20-foot-deep ravine.

A mechanical problem may have caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle, police investigator Alexis Go told The Associated Press.

Police officer Ian Villanosa said the bus driver was killed and that children were among the injured.

Highway fatalities are alarmingly high in the Philippines due to poor traffic law enforcement, the dilapidated conditions of vehicles, and a lack of safety features like signs and railings, especially in far-flung provinces.

A senator who advocates for traffic safety shared her sympathies to the families of the victims while also expressing rage that such accidents are preventable.

Sen. Grace Poe called for support of a Senate bill that would create a National Transportation Safety Board and other steps such as inspections of public transportation vehicles and strict drivers’ licensing.

She said the crash was a reminder of how dangerous public transportation is in the Philippines. “Sadly, the list of tragic road accidents and their casualties continue to increase because vehicles that are not roadworthy or even those we label as rolling coffins are still allowed to ply the roads with near impunity,” her statement said.
14 people died and 24 others were injured when the brakes of an overloaded passenger van failed while the van was traveling on a winding road in northen Philippines.