A UST-COMISSIONED bus carrying junior Artlets was struck by another vehicle along a major highway on Thursday, Nov. 13, but no injuries or major damage were reported.
The University vehicle was reportedly hit by a truck around 4 p.m. at an area within the NLEX-SLEX connector.
The passengers were Legal Management juniors on their way back to the University from their pilgrimage, an annual field trip to Manaoag, Pangasinan for third-year Artlets.
A student aboard the bus, who requested anonymity, said the vehicle sustained “plenty” of scratches and damage, including to both of its side mirrors. The student said one of the mirrors had flown off during the collision, while the one on the driver’s side had shattered.
“If the [bus] continued at the same speed or if it suddenly stopped, we could have really skidded or fell off the connector,” the Artlets student told The Flame.
According to passengers, help from government rescue teams never arrived, and the faculty member in charge of their bus was the one who handled their transfer.
They reportedly waited an hour and a half for another UST-commissioned bus on the same trip, which had already dropped off another batch of students at the University, to pick them up.
The Flame reached out to the AB administration for comment but has yet to receive a response. This story will be updated once the Artlets administrators issue a statement.
Constituency checks are being conducted as some of the bus’ passengers are still processing the incident.
One of the passengers, who also requested anonymity, said her classmates were unsettled by the sudden turn of events.
“Most of us were stunned (not to the extent), shocked, because we were singing happily inside the bus, some were still sleeping, and I think the others have not processed what happened,” she added.
Another passenger said she was scared by the loud sound of the collision as the bus was on an elevated expressway.
“We were shocked, because if ever our bus fell, it was super high up and there were a lot of electrical cables underneath,” she said. F — with reports from John Martin Revilla
EDITOR’S NOTE: The article has been updated to include that the bus was commissioned by UST. Additional details about the efforts to bring back the passengers to UST were likewise included. The names of the passengers were also removed upon their request.
