LTFRB slaps 30-day suspension on 16 Victory Liner buses

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) has suspended for 30 days 16 buses of Victory Liner after a unit figured in a fatal road accident.

Road worthiness test required

The LTFRB said the 16 buses plying the Sta. Cruz, Zambales-Pasay City route will have to undergo road worthiness test at the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

Bus drivers will also have to undergo training on road safety, it added.

“Due to this unfortunate incident, we have no recourse but to suspend other units of Victory Liner with the same route and have them subjected for thorough inspection,” LTFRB chairman Winston Ginez said.

A hearing on the case has been set on October 7.

The accident

Last September 21, a Victory Liner bus collided with a 14-wheeler truck along the North Luzon Expressway (NLEx) in Pampanga. The bus conductor was killed while 22 others were hurt.

The members of the rescue team had a difficult time trying to get bus driver Renato Fajardo and conductor Benedict Dipan out of the wreckage.

Once Fajardo was out, rescuers saw that his legs were broken. Dipan was already dead.

According to Police Inspector Roldan Manulit—Deputy for Operations of the Mexico, Pampanga police—both the bus and the truck had come from a gasoline station. The crash happened when both vehicles were on the acceleration lane.

Fajardo—as well as 21 injured passengers—were taken to the Jose B. Lingad Regional Memorial Hospital.

The management of Victory Liner promised to provide assistance to the injured passengers.