Dec 16, 2013 01:39 PM EST By Jaleesa Baulkman, UniversityHerald Reporter

An accident occurred on Skyway when a passenger bus skidded off the wet, elevated highway in suburban Manila and fell onto a van passing below Monday morning, killing at least 17 people and injuring 16 others, the Associated Press reported.

Footage out of the Philippines showed numerous bodies strewn around the wreckage, as well as an unrecognizable van which was crushed into a pile of smashed white metal after being hit by the Don Mariano Transit corp. passenger bus.

Ivy Vidal, a spokeswoman from Skyway Operations and Maintenance Corp., told the AP it was not immediately clear what caused the accident but the highway was wet from rain.

The bus was reportedly traveling at an excessive speed before it veered off the Metro Manila Skyway and crashed into the van 32 feet below in Paranaque city at dawn, police superintendent Elizabeth Velasquez told the AP.

The Examiner reported that the bus lost control seconds before its fall.

Irene Sisperes, a motorist who witnessed the accident, told radio DZMM she was overtaken by the bus.

While she was driving with her daughter at 50 mph and she estimated that the bus was traveling at between 62 mph and 68 mph

She said it was dark and it was raining when the accident happened.

"After a few meters, I saw the bus fall and I shouted, 'The bus fell, the bus fell'," she said, adding there were no other cars nearby.

She reported the incident at the toll gate.

Velasquez initially reported that 21 died and 20 others were injured. She later said there appeared to have been double counting amid the confusion.

She said earlier that the van's driver was killed and the bus driver was in serious condition in a hospital. But Dr. Carmencita Solidum, medical director of the Paranaque Doctors' Hospital, told the AP the two drivers were among the 10 injured who were at her hospital.

The bus driver was critically injured and but the van driver had minor injuries, she added

Angelo Dequina, an employee of a funeral parlor, said 17 bodies from the accident were brought to their mortuary from hospitals and from the crash site.

The 78 buses of the Don Mariano Transit corp. have been suspended for 30 days, according to Winston Ginez, chairman of the government's Land Transportation, Franchising and Regulatory Board.

According to the AP, a similar accident occurred two years ago. A bus from another company also fell from the Skyway near the same area, leaving three people dead and four others injured.

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