Bus crash in Camarines Sur death toll rises to six after ravine fall
The death toll from a bus crash in Del Gallego, Camarines Sur, rose to six on 2025-12-25 after two more victims died in hospital, police said. The crash happened along the Andaya Highway in Barangay Magais 1, where a passenger bus left the road and plunged into a ravine.
Police Captain Bernie Undecimo, chief of the Del Gallego Municipal Police Station, said the additional deaths were recorded after four people had already been reported killed in the same accident. One victim died on Saturday and another died early Sunday at Bicol Medical Center, bringing the total number of fatalities to six.
The bus had been traveling from Quezon City to Sorsogon and was carrying 25 passengers and two drivers. According to police, it went off the highway around 2 a.m. and fell about 26 to 30 meters into the ravine. Trees below the slope helped stop the vehicle from dropping further, which likely prevented even greater loss of life.
The cause has not been definitively established, but police said the driver may have fallen asleep and lost control. That possibility places the crash in the familiar category of long-distance road tragedies in which fatigue, night driving and a major highway route combine to produce a catastrophic outcome.
The source packet says the driver remained under hospital treatment as of the reporting time and was being watched by police. Charges had already been filed. The bus company was also said to be assisting the affected passengers. Those details matter because they show the crash had moved quickly from rescue operation to criminal and administrative investigation.
The wider impact went beyond the victims counted in the fatality total. Any passenger list of 27 people on a bus that fell into a ravine implies a broader field of injuries, trauma and family uncertainty even where injuries were not fatal. The report did not provide a full injury list, but it did make clear that the crash was severe enough to require immediate hospital transfers and a police response that continued after the scene was cleared.
Road crashes on steep or dark provincial routes often unfold in seconds, but the aftermath lasts much longer. In Del Gallego, the growing death toll and the suspected role of driver fatigue show how a routine overnight trip can become a mass-casualty incident before dawn.
