A truck driver’s license was revoked on September 23, after an individual atop the cargo of his vehicle fell and died on July 23 in San Miguel, Iloilo, the Land Transportation (LTO) Office.
According to the LTO, the 22-year-old victim was the helper of the truck driver who was ‘seated on bamboo poles loaded onto a truck when he slipped on the rain-soaked cargo, fell, and sustained fatal head injuries.’
Though taken to a hospital, the helper was declared dead on arrival, the LTO reported.
‘The presence of a passenger atop unsecured cargo constitutes a clear breach of safety protocols and reflects a failure to exercise control and diligence,’ LTO-6 Regional Director, lawyer Gaudioso P. Geduspan II said in the resolution.
In response to the show-cause order issued to the truck driver on July 28, he claimed that the cargo was secured and he advised the victim to ride on the passenger seat, but the victim ‘insisted on staying atop the load while allegedly recording a video.’
Still, the LTO held the driver liable for the helper’s safety, citing that drivers must ‘exercise reasonable caution,’ thus ruling the truck driver an improper person to operate a motor vehicle ‘at this time.’
Upon recommendation of the LTO’s Intelligence and Investigation Unit, the license revocation will last four years.
Furthermore, the driver’s license was placed on alarm and the driver was fined for reckless driving. /cb