6 hurt in Sultan Kudarat road accident

KORONADAL CITY — Six hitchhikers were badly hurt after a cargo truck carrying them, loaded with 700 bags of rice, toppled in a stretch of a highway in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat on Monday morning.

In initial reports released at noontime Monday, the Isulan Municipal Police Station and the Sultan Kudarat Provincial Police Office separately confirmed that the six injured hitchhikers were immediately rushed to a hospital by emergency responders.

The police withheld their names in the meantime pending notification of their families.

Police investigators and personnel of the Isulan Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office told reporters that the ill-fated truck wiggled and rolled over when its driver lost control of the wheel due to a mechanical defect while maneuvering through a stretch of the highway in Purok Pag-asa in Barangay Kolambog in Isulan, capital town of Sultan Kudarat.

There were nine people aboard the truck, including its driver and his two aides, according to barangay officials who responded to the incident.