Manila: Fourteen students were killed after their bus slammed into a concrete electric pole in Tanay in Rizal, east of Manila, on Monday.

More than 50 students of the Bestlink Philippine Colleges in Quezon City were on their way to a study tour and camping activity at the Sacramento Valley Resort on Sampaloc Road, Tanay, when the Panda Coach Tours bus they were riding in lost its brakes and careened out of control as the vehicle negotiated the twisting road to the area.

According to Engineer Carlos Inofre, head of the Tanay Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Office, ten of the students were killed instantly in the accident while the others died at the Rizal Provincial Hospital and the Tanay General Hospital.

“Most of those who suffered fatal injuries were those seated at the left side of the bus which hit the electric pole,” said Inofre.

The camping activity was part of school requirements under the government National Service Training Programme at Bestlink, a tertiary educational institution located in Novaliches, Quezon City.

The driver of the bus survived the crash with injuries.

Officials said an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the accident but according to some of the passengers, they noticed a peculiar burning smell — believed to be the brake pads overheating — moments before the crash.

It is suspected that the vehicle’s brakes had failed causing the driver to lose control.

Based on the statement of the driver, whom authorities are yet to identify, he tried to slow the vehicle down without the brakes but the vehicle’s momentum was too much as it was travelling downhill.

The mountain roads East of Metro Manila are notorious for accidents. In 2016, an accident in Antipolo City injured ten people after a light cargo truck slammed into a van and three other vehicles at the Marcos Highway.

In 2014, seven college students of the Bulacan State University on a field trip died after they were swept in a flash flood at the Biak-na-Bato national park in Bulacan province north of the capital.

As a result of the incident, several school officials were sacked and filed with criminal charges for having failed in ensuring the safety of the students during the field trip.