By Glazyl M. Jopson
BACOLOD CITY – Two teenage boys died after a 10-wheeler truck loaded with sugarcane crashed into a computer shop in Purok 9, Barangay Minoyan, Murcia, Negros Occidental, on Thursday afternoon.
Police Major Sherwin Fernandez, chief of the Murcia Municipal Police Station, said the victims were 14 and 15 years old.
Fernandez said the 50-year-old truck driver claimed the brakes malfunctioned as he approached a downhill curve, causing the truck to swerve into the roadside shop around 3:30 p.m.
The younger victim was pinned in front of the truck and took rescuers several minutes to extricate.
The second victim was found near the truck outside the shop.
Both were declared dead at a hospital.
Fernandez said the driver, a resident of Bago City, was uninjured and is now in police custody.
An investigation is ongoing.
The truck had not yet been removed from the site as of this writing, but it did not disrupt traffic.
Barangay officials and authorities remained at the scene to assist with the recovery.
Meanwhile, a 21-year-old college student and beauty pageant contestant died in a motorcycle accident along Circumferential Road in Barangay Bata on Wednesday morning.
According to a police report, the victim, a Silay City resident, suddenly swerved from the outermost lane to the right, colliding with the rear left portion of a parked truck.
She was taken to a hospital but was declared dead shortly after.
The Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) urged all road users to exercise caution and follow parking regulations to avoid similar tragedies.
