Six people, including an eight year old child, were injured after a bridge in Isabela province which opened last February 1 collapsed on Thursday night as a dump truck carrying 102 tons of boulders and three vehicles passed through.

Based on initial investigation, Cabagan police reported that the dump truck, a Toyota Innova, a Nissan Livina and a motorcycle were traversing the "first span of the arch" of the Cabagan - Santa Maria bridge when it collapsed at the vicinity of Barangay Casibarag Norte in Cabagan.

Police said all the drivers and passengers of the Toyota Innova, Nissan Livina and a motorcycle sustained injuries in different parts of their bodies after their vehicles fell into the ground.

All of the victims were rushed by the responding personnel of Cabagan Municipal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office (MDRRMO) to Milagros Albano District Hospital but due to serious injury sustained by the motorcycle rider, he was transferred at the Cagayan Valley Medical Center in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan.

The driver of the dump truck who tried to flee surrendered to authorities on Friday morning.

The Cagayan Valley regional office of the Department of Public Works said the construction of the bridge began on November 2014 but was only finished on Feb. 1, 2025 at a cost of P1.225 billion.

Isabela Gov. Rodolfo Albano said: ''Let an investigation be launched and whoever is responsible must answer for it.''

In a television interview, Mathias Malenab, officer-in-charge regional public works director, said based on their initial assessment the dump truck weighs 102 tons while based on the design of the bridge its capacity is only up to 45 tons.

"Based on our initial computation last night... , our approximation is at 102 tons. That's why, the engineers from the central office are also assessing to determine the actual rate of the truck including the load," he said.

"What happened is because the truck is short and its load is heavy (and) it exceeds the design standard. It seems that the load has become concentrated there," he added. Robina Asido/DMS