Bus driver's maintenance meds may have caused drowsiness leading to SCTEX crash—LTFRB
The bus driver involved in the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway crash was taking maintenance medicines that may have caused drowsiness, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board said.
The agency held its first hearing on the fatal accident, where 10 people were killed, on May 7.
LTFRB Chairman Teofilo Guadiz told reporters in a chance interview that the driver allegedly took hypertension medicine after eating lunch.
"Ang effect of this medicine is [that] it will dilute the blood and eventually aantukin ka, based on these findings, obviously, inantok ang driver," he said, as per ABS-CBN News.
Initial investigation by Tarlac City Police found that the driver dozed off while driving.
Guadiz then questioned if the Solid North Transit Inc. was aware of the bus driver's medications.
"Dapat malaman ng management. Kung 'di nila alam, dapat nalaman nila 'yan, that's the health of the driver," he said.
"The management has to answer for the negligence of the driver."
According to the Mayo Clinic, Losartan, the blood pressure medication the driver was taking, includes some side effects including body aches or pain, chills, cough, ear congestion, fever, headache, loss of voice, sneezing, sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, trouble breathing, and unusual tiredness or weakness. It noted that not all of these side effects may occur.
Solid North Transit Inc.'s legal counsel Atty. Alex Verzosa, meanwhile, said that the driver started taking the high blood pressure medication in August 2024 after a doctor prescribed it. The driver did not declare it with the company, he said, as per Super Radyo DZBB.
Verzosa also told the outlet that the bus driver did not take maintenance medicine on the day of the accident but drank it the night before the trip.
He also explained that the driver declined to take a drug test after the accident because of his maintenance medicines.
The bus driver tested negative for drugs and alcohol.
The LTFRB has asked the driver and conductor to attend the next hearing on May 21.
At noon on May 1, a speeding bus plowed into three cars and a closed van truck in the toll plaza of SCTEX northbound. 10 individuals, including four children, were killed while 37 others, including the bus driver and the conductor, sustained injuries.
The Land Transportation Office has permanently revoked the bus driver's license after the multi-vehicle collision.
Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation has ordered mandatory regular drug testing for drivers of public utility vehicles starting May 5.
