4 killed in Nueva Vizcaya road accident

Four people were killed and one was hurt when a sedan they were riding rammed a concrete wall in Nueva Vizcaya province, a belated police report said Sunday. The fatalities were identified by Diadi town police as Jonathan Vergara, 34; Eduardo Datu, 36; his wife Zenaida, 34; and their four year-old daughter Sandara. Police rushed all victims to a hospital in Cordon town in neighboring Isabela province but the four succumbed to fatal injuries. Nine year-old Angel, the lone surviving family member who suffered fractures on her skull and rib cage, has been transferred to the De Vera Medical Center in Santiago City and is still in critical condition. Reports indicate that the victims came from Manila and were heading north on a Toyota Corolla sedan with plate number TFX 336, when the car suddenly swerved and rammed a concrete wall of a store by the roadside in Diadi town at dawn on Thursday. Police investigators theorized that the car’s driver, Eduardo, may have fallen asleep while driving. Sr. Insp. Rogelio Garcia, Diadi police chief, told GMANews.TV that they were still able to talk to the passengers after they were pulled out of the wreckage. He also noticed that they were not wearing their seat belts. “When we arrived at the accident site, I saw that the car’s seat belts were not fastened on any of the passengers. They could have survived," he said. The Datu family was on their way home to Aurora in Isabela for a family reunion that was scheduled on New Year's Day. - Floro Taguinod/LBG, GMANews.TV