TRAIN RAMS VAN. Emergency responders from Calamba City’s Local Disaster and Risk Reduction Management Division assess the crash site when a Philippine National Railway (PNR) train rammed a van, injuring at least five persons including the driver, his passenger and three village residents in the sub-village informal settlement in Barangay Parian, Calamba City on Sept. 3, 2019. (Photos by Robert A. Maico)
CALAMBA CITY, Laguna – At least five persons were hurt while four houses were damaged after a Philippine National Railway train rammed a van that crossed the railroad tracks early Tuesday morning in the sub-village informal settlement in Barangay Parian here.
City chief of police, Lt. Col. Jacinto Malinao said the van driver, Jourdan Charlie Lunaria Sancon, and his passenger, Miguel Aguilar Guanteros, who both suffered minor injuries, were brought to the police station for investigation.
The victims whose houses were damaged and slightly injured three were identified as Albert Bunagwa delos Santos, Mark Lester Ricafranca Pasia, Jennielyn Leonen Valmoria, Nilda Leonen Valmoria, Lea Chavez Manood, Lorena Tiamzon Leonen, and Jan Airrel Manood Valmoria.
Initial investigation disclosed that the Nissan Urvan was crossing the railroad around 4:50 a.m. on its way to the Lianas Mall when its driver failed to heed the train’s warning sound. Upon impact, the van was pushed off the tracks and hit three houses in the area.
The incident also damaged a concrete fence and the tricycle owned by Gloria Villanueva Valmoria, a few meters from the railway.
Jeffrey Rodriguez, chief of the city’s Public Order and Safety Office (POSO) and Local Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Division (LDRRMD), said the van driver and a passenger were almost pinned to death and were visibly shaken because of the road crash.
Rodriguez, along with the POSO/LDRRMD team, rushed to the crash site for an emergency operation and assessed the situation as an ambulance carrying injured victims sped to the Jose P. Rizal District Hospital.
“Tatanggalin na natin ito, huwag na natin patitirhan dito. Yun sinasabi natin kaya tayo nagke-clearing operation sa riles at yun na ang aksidente (We have to remove this, and prohibit anyone to reside here. That’s what we have been saying that we have conducted clearing operation at the railroad and now we have this accident),” he said.
He also assured the city government assistance for the victims and has already coordinated with the PNR management.
He said he has already recommended to Mayor Justin Marc Chipeco for the clearing of illegal structures but some residents refused to vacate the area.
“Nangyari na nga (This has finally happened),” a village resident quipped, as the LDRRMD team chief said some of them have already been awarded housing units at the relocation site in the upland Barangay Kay-anlog here.
Village folks said they also pulled out two children who were underneath the collapsed light materials and were immediately treated at the hospital. (Robert A. Maico/PNA)
