54 bodies, mostly still unidentified, sent to Yogyakarta<\/p>\n
ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Situbondo, East Java<\/p>\n
The 54 bodies of schoolgirls and others killed in a horrific
\nthree-vehicle crash were brought home to Yogyakarta on Friday,
\nalthough most of them were not identified yet, while police
\narrested a trailer truck driver blamed for the tragedy.<\/p>\n
The corpses, wrapped in white and put in wooden coffins, were
\ndispatched aboard dozens of ambulances at around 4:30 p.m. from
\nthe Situbondo General Hospital in East Java, three days after the
\ntragedy.<\/p>\n
Some of the coffins carried names of the charred victims,
\nincluding 49 schoolgirls, from the Yapemda I senior high school
\nin Sleman regency, Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
The remains were scheduled to arrive in Yogyakarta at 1 a.m.
\non Saturday. Yogyakarta Governor Sultan Hamengkubuwono X was
\nslated to come out and pay his respects.<\/p>\n
However, it remained unclear how many bodies had been
\nidentified.<\/p>\n
Police forensic doctors and hospital staffers in Situbondo
\nsaid they had identified only six bodies, but families claimed
\nthey had identified 15 victims.<\/p>\n
The six identified bodies belonged to Yuli Puspitasari, Nila
\nTrihandayani, Dina Mariana, Siti Lutfilah Zairoh, Vita Poerwanti
\nand Jubaidi, according to director of the Situbondo hospital
\nIsmunarso.<\/p>\n
"It's hard to carry out physical identification. Now, we are
\ncollecting data (from families) to identify the victims. If it
\nremains unsuccessful, we will conduct DNA tests," said Sr. Comr.
\nMusaddeq, who led the forensic team.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Friday, around 120 family members of the victims
\narrived after midnight in Situbondo in three buses escorted by
\npolice officers.<\/p>\n
They later returned back to Yogyakarta along with the convoy
\nof the ambulances, despite the fact that most of their dead
\nchildren remained unnamed.<\/p>\n
The families, mostly uncles, brothers, grandmothers and
\ngrandfathers, had been asked to help identify the victims by
\nsight. However, the move was not helpful so much.<\/p>\n
"I don't dare to see the bodies directly. So I asked my uncle
\nto look if there was a body with a red bra. If so, it's my sister
\n(Istanty)," Esty, one of the bereaved family members, said sadly
\nas forensic doctors held a meeting with them.<\/p>\n
"Before her departure to Bali, my sister only packed red bras
\nand underwear," Esty added.<\/p>\n
However, most of the families had to accept letters from the
\nhospital telling them that their dead children were not
\nidentified, before the 54 bodies were sent home to Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, East Java Police said on Friday they were detaining
\nthe driver of the trailer truck that plowed into the ill-fated
\nbus AO Transport, killing the 54 people -- 49 schoolgirls aged
\nbetween 17 and 18, two male students, two teachers and a tour
\nguide.<\/p>\n
The bus, returning from a field trip to Bali, was also rammed
\nfrom behind by a pickup and burst into flames during one of the
\ncountry's worst road accidents this year.<\/p>\n
The driver, named as Kozin, told police investigators his
\nunlicensed assistant was at the wheel during the accident on
\nWednesday evening, said Situbondo Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr.
\nTugas Dwi Aprianto.<\/p>\n
He said Kozin, 40, the licensed driver of the truck, turned
\nhimself into the police late on Thursday following an intense
\nmanhunt across Java island.<\/p>\n
Kozin and his assistant driver Syafii, 35, also currently
\nbeing detained, could face charges of negligence and be jailed
\nfor up to five years for causing deaths.<\/p>\n
The local police were questioning them as the main suspects
\nthe inferno.<\/p>\n
"Syafii looks very upset and depressed over the crash. So it
\nmakes it difficult to interrogate him right now," a local police
\nofficer said.<\/p>\n
He said his office was also investigating the bus driver,
\nArmando, as a witness in the accident. "But there is a
\npossibility he could also be named a suspect," traffic director
\nof the East Java police Sr. Comr. AA Adjar Triadi said in
\nSitubondo.<\/p>\n
He said Kozin admitted that his truck had been traveling
\ndownhill at a high speed and had occupied both lanes of the dark
\nand busy highway when its brakes failed and it crashed into the
\nbus.<\/p>\n
The crash caused the bus to burst into flames. Police said the
\nfire started from the trailer truck's fuel tank.<\/p>\n
At the same time, a pickup carrying fruit smashed into the
\nback of the bus, trapping the students inside as its back door
\nwas locked.<\/p>\n
Witnesses said they arrived to see the bus engulfed in flames,
\nwhile the passengers struggling in vain to escape.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/54-bodies-mostly-still-unidentified-sent-to-yogyakarta-1447893297",
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