Police personnel, barangay tanods, and barangay officials are tapped to ensure no buses, trucks, and other big and heavy vehicles would ply the treacherous road bend situated precariously in the upland barangay of Igbucagay, Hamtic town, Province of Antique.
Banning the said vehicles is meant to avoid another accident in the area deemed a “killer curve.”
Only motorcycles and jeepneys and other 4-wheel vehicles are allowed to ply the route via Igbucagay from Y-Road in Tiolas town.
Antique Governor Rhodora Cadiao said that the police force and barangay workers will man the Y-Road to direct buses and trucks to use the coastal road instead.
Cadiao further confirmed that engineers from the Department of Public Works and Highways will work on the redesigning of the portion of the road in Igbacagay to avoid another incident.
Death toll in the Ceres bus accident on December 5, 2023 already reached 19 while 10 were injured. The Ceres bus plunged into a 100-foot ravine at past 4 p.m. on its way to Culasi town in Antique from Iloilo City.
SINCE 1959
In a December 14, 2023 post of the Antique Provincial Government, 70-year-old Arturo Sarad and Barangay Kagawad Edwardo Sicorsicor of Barangay Igbucagay shared information on the accidents that happened in the said “killer curve” since 1959.
Their accounts are also backed by records of the Philippine National Police in Hamtic town.
Here is the list of incidents:
1. truck (1959), loaded with goods and foodstuff, around three died;
2. bus (May 25, 1986), 23 died and 15 injured;
3. bus (late 80s), undisclosed number of casualty/death;
4. closed van (2016), one died;
5. truck loaded with soft drink products (August 11, 2017), one helper died, driver injured;
6. delivery van (2017), no fatalities;
7. closed van loaded with feeds (2018), no deaths;
8. 10-wheeler truck loaded with cement ( 2019), one helper died;
9. closed van loaded with construction materials (2019), no fatalities (the vehicle did not fall off into the ravine but overturned in the middle of the highway);
10. closed van loaded with feeds (2019), no deaths (vehicle did not fall off into the ravine but overturned in the middle of the highway);
11. Ceres bus (April 5, 2019), three died and six injured;
12. car (2020), no deaths (the car crashed into the barrier);
13. Ceres bus (December 5, 2023), 19 fatalities and 10 injured.
According to Sarad and Sicorsicor, at least six motorcycles crashed into the barrier in the last ten years.
Further, Sarad and Sicorsicor narrated that the bus with 23 deaths on May 25, 1986 was made more disastrous as it reportedly carried Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) tanks.
(Additional info courtesy: The Antique Provincial Government Facebook page)