MANILA, Philippines - If not for a pine tree, another bus, this time carrying 30 vocational college students, could have plunged off a cliff in the southern town of Dalaguete, Cebu province on Friday morning.

Dalaguete Vice-Mayor Jeffrey Belcinia said a mini-bus carrying 30 Don Bosco College students was negotiating a downhill part of a road in Barangay Mantalungon around 10 a.m. when its engine overheated and conked out.

Belcinia said the driver lost control of the vehicle because its breaks also failed. The bus was heading toward a cliff, but luckily, it rammed into a pine tree.

Seven of the students were slightly injured and another one was seriously hurt due to the collision.

The students, who have yet to be identified by the authorities, were brought to the Cardinal Rosales District Hospital in Dalaguete town.

The incident happened 2 months after a bus with mostly Iranian nursing and medical students fell into a ravine in Balamban town last June 14.

Twenty Iranian students died and 30 others were hurt in the accident.

On Tuesday, at least 41 people died when another bus fell into a ravine in Sablan town, Benguet province. – Report from Carmi Cavanlit, ABS-CBN Cebu