MANILA, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Eight Philippine teenagers were killed and 17 injured early on Wednesday when the van they were riding home after a night on the beach smashed into a trailer truck in the north of the country, police said.

The accident occurred near Bauang town in La Union province when the teenagers were on their way home to La Trinidad town in neighbouring Benguet province in a "jeepney" van.

Police said the jeepney, a uniquely Philippine bus fashioned after the U.S. military jeep, was being driven by an 18-year old.

"Most suffered head injuries. Some were rushed to the intensive care unit," Sonny Madrid at the emergency room of the Ilocos Training and Medical Center in La Union, where the youths were brought, said in an interview on dzRH radio.

Police quoted witnesses as saying the jeepney was speeding and being driven erratically before hitting the trailer truck.

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