MANILA, Philippines // Fifteen people on their way to a wake for a dead clan member were killed when their speeding truck lost its brakes on a downhill road, smashed into a cement barrier and flipped over in the central Philippines, officials said on Sunday.
Eight other people, including the driver, were injured on Saturday night when the truck rolled over twice and landed in a shallow creek in Caibiran town in Biliran province.
Caibiran Mayor Eulalio Maderazo said many of the victims, including children, were hurled off the truck or crushed underneath it. Relatives travelling separately on two motorcycles saw the truck roll over and called police.
"The impact was so strong some of the passengers were thrown off the truck," Maderazo said by telephone, adding that provincial officials would provide coffins and financial help to the impoverished families of the victims.
He said most of the passengers were members of a dead woman's clan and were traveling to attend her wake in Caibiran in mountainous Biliran, about 500 kilometers southeast of Manila.
Many accidents in the Philippines are blamed on poorly maintained vehicles and roads, ill-trained drivers and weak law enforcement.
