Metro Manila, Philippines – A maintenance medication for hypertension may have caused the bus driver involved in the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway (SCTEX) collision to doze off while driving, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) said.
The transport regulator shared this information after its first hearing on the deadly May 1 multiple collision, which killed 10 people including children.
In an interview on Wednesday, May 7, LTFRB Chairperson Teofilo Guadiz said the driver allegedly took losartan after eating lunch, a medication used to treat high blood pressure.
“The effect of this medicine is it will dilute the blood and it will eventually aantukin ka. Based on these initial findings, obviously inantok nga iyong driver. However, our concern is alam ba ng management iyong ganitong nangyayari…and what is the conductor doing noong nalaman na nagkaka-problema na sa daan,” he said.
[Translation: The effect of this medicine is it will dilute the blood and it will eventually make you sleepy. Based on these initial findings, obviously the driver dozed off. However, our concern is if the management knew that was the case and what was the conductor doing when they encountered a problem on the road.]
The driver under police custody was a no-show at the hearing.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for the bus operator, Pangasinan Solid North Transit Inc., who attended the inquiry, denied that the driver took maintenance medications on the day of the collision.
Alex Verzosa said the driver left the terminal in Quezon City at 9 a.m. – his first shift.
“Takot siya na magpa-drug test dahil doon sa maintenance medicine niya. Inamin niya na iyon ang iniinom niya. Pero iyong araw na iyon, hindi daw siya uminom,” Alex Verzosa, the bus operator’s lawyer, said, adding that the driver took the medicine on April 30.
[Translation: He is apprehensive of taking the drug test because of his maintenance medicine. He admitted to the medication, but he did not take it on that fatal day.]
The LTFRB has required the driver and conductor to appear before the agency at the next hearing on May 21.
