Skyway Accident Manila: At Least 21 People Killed, 20 Injured

A skyway accident in Manila, Philippines has resulted in the deaths of at least 21 people; a further 20 suffered varying degrees of injury.

Footage out of Manila shows numerous dead bodies strewn around the freeway, as well as an unrecognizable van which was hit by a bus.

The accident happened when a bus full of passengers, veered off the Manila Skyway, a kind of elevated freeway. It collided with a van whose driver was killed on impact. The driver of the bus remains in critical condition in a hospital in Paranaque.

Authorities are unsure at this stage what caused the Skyway accident in Manila. It is known that the roads were wet due to rain and were quite slippery.

A motorist who was an eyewitness to the crash, Irene Sisperes, said that she was travelling at 50 mph when the bus, which must have been traveling at around 70 mph, overtook her. Sisperes did not see exactly what happened as it was dark.

She said: “After a few meters, I saw the bus fell and I shouted, ‘The bus fell, the bus fell.”

Due to suspicions that it could be the bus that was faulty in some way, the entire fleet of buses, operated by the Don Mariano Bus Company, has been taken off the road pending inspections.

The driver of the bus, Carmelo Calascas, who is in hospital, will have to undergo drug and alcohol testing; apparently all of the drivers from the Don Mariano Bus Company will be ordered to retrain.

It remains to be seen whether human error was to blame for the tragic Skyway accident in Manila or whether the bus itself was faulty. Police authorities have opened a full investigation into the crash.