Two adolescent motorists killed in Basilan highway crash

Two male adolescents riding a motorcycle died from injuries they sustained in a road accident in Barangay Sta. Clara, Lamitan City, Basilan on Thursday, July 16. The victims, whose names were withheld by barangay officials and police investigators because they were minors, were declared dead on arrival by doctors at Lamitan District Hospital, where emergency responders rushed them for treatment. Local officials and Lamitan City deputy police chief, Lt. Jasfreel Acma, separately told reporters on Friday, July 17, that one of the two minors lost control while attempting to overtake a tricycle along a stretch of the Lamitan-Isabela Highway in Barangay Sta. Clara, resulting in the crash. The two victims are both high school students from Lower Bato-Bato in Akbar, one of the 11 towns in Basilan, according to radio reports. They were buried by their relatives in their hometown within 24 hours of their deaths, in keeping with the Islamic tradition of promptly burying the deceased.