Eight people were killed while 17 others were injured after a bus carrying tourists from Laguna slammed into an acacia tree along Marcos Highway in Barangay Palina in Pugo, La Union Saturday afternoon, a local police official said Sunday. Chief Insp. Jacinto Lipaen, chief of the Pugo municipal police station, told GMANews.TV that a PJM Love Bus bus figured in the accident at around 5:40 P.M. after its brakes malfunctioned while negotiating a slope along Marcos Highway, instantly killing eight of its 49 passengers. The bus was carrying tourists from the St. Peter Parish in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, back to Manila from an excursion in Baguio City when the accident happened, according to Lipaen. The police chief likewise said the 17 passengers injured in the accident were brought to the Baguio General Hospital for treatment. Officials said the fatalities included Roman Catholic priests. Police have yet to identify the fatalities and injured passengers as of posting time, since investigators have not retrieved any identifying items rom the victims.
