Slipups, carelessness behind tragedies<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The past year may not be called an accident
\nprone year, but it has had more than its share of tragedies on
\nthe ground, at sea and in the air. Unfortunately, too many lives
\nwere lost as a result of negligence and human error.<\/p>\n
Jan. 25<\/p>\n
Seven people were killed and 20 injured when a bus crashed
\ninto a stalled dump truck on a highway connecting Buton and
\nPekanbaru, Riau. The bus was badly damaged, suggesting it was
\nspeeding at the time of the accident.<\/p>\n
Jan. 28<\/p>\n
Eight died and another 22 were seriously injured in a five-
\nvehicle pileup on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road. The collision
\nstarted when an intercity bus lost control in the lane heading to
\nCikampek and ended up in the lane heading to Jakarta.<\/p>\n
March 23<\/p>\n
Ten people were killed and 13 others injured after a passenger
\nbus collided with a truck. The accident occurred in Kampar
\ndistrict, Riau in the afternoon when the speeding bus slammed
\ninto the truck which was traveling in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
March 30<\/p>\n
An open truck packed with supporters of a local volleyball
\nteam overturned in Mambak village, Mlonggo district, Central
\nJava, killing seven and injuring 46. The bus was speeding to a
\nmatch in nearby Bantrung village when the driver lost control as
\nhe tried to dodge a van coming from the opposite direction. All
\nbut one of the dead were teenagers.<\/p>\n
April 10<\/p>\n
Nine passengers were killed and seven others seriously injured
\nwhen a speeding 12-seater van burst into flames on the Cikampek
\ntoll road, West Java. The fire was put out in about 20 minutes
\nand the car did not explode. All passengers were going to a
\nwedding in Babakan, Kuningan, Cirebon. They had left Jakarta from
\nPancoran, South Jakarta. Among the dead was a two-year-old child.<\/p>\n
April 19<\/p>\n
A Merpati Nusantara airplane carrying 48 passengers and five
\ncrew members crashed on Belitung Island, killing 15 people.<\/p>\n
The Advanced Turbo Prop aircraft crashed into a oil palm
\nplantation about six kilometers from Bulu Tumbang Airport in
\nBelitung's main city of Tanjung Pandan. Witnesses said most of
\nthe fatalities occurred from conflagration. The plane broke into
\nthree pieces upon impact.<\/p>\n
May 3<\/p>\n
In Majalengka, West Java, nine people died and eight were
\nseriously injured when a Sahabat intercity bus with five
\npassengers aboard crashed head-on with a minibus carrying 22
\npassengers. Three infants were among the dead.<\/p>\n
May 22<\/p>\n
All six people aboard a CN-235 aircraft were killed when it
\ncrashed during a Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System test at
\nthe Gorda Airbase in Serang, West Java.<\/p>\n
June 15<\/p>\n
Seven people died and two were injured when their truck
\nplunged into a river in Demak, Central Java. The truck, with 50
\npassengers aboard, went out of control going down a hill and
\nskidded into the muddy river while it was traveling from Demak to
\nthe nearby town of Purwodadi.<\/p>\n
July 12<\/p>\n
The ferry MV Sentosa 10 carrying 92 passengers went down after
\nleaving Batam Island's Telaga Punggur Harbor for Bintan's Tanjung
\nPinang. Twelve people drowned.<\/p>\n
July 13<\/p>\n
An overloaded ferry sank in Lake Toba, North Tapanuli, North
\nSumatra. Seventy-seven bodies were found, but the true number of
\ndead still remains a mystery. The ferry's capacity was only 60
\npassengers but officials believe up to 200 may have been aboard.<\/p>\n
The MV Peldatari I was sailing from Parapat to Tomok, a town
\non Samosir Island in the middle of Lake Toba. The boat was
\ncarrying Tomok residents who were returning after a cultural
\nfestival in Parapat.<\/p>\n
July 17<\/p>\n
A Trigana Air Service Fokker-27 airplane leased by Sempati Air
\ncrashed five minutes after take-off from Husein Sastranegara
\nAirport in Bandung, West Java.<\/p>\n
Twenty-nine people were killed.<\/p>\n
Sept. 14<\/p>\n
Thirty-two people were killed and 29 others injured when an
\nintercity bus collided head-on with a dump truck on the Cakung-
\nCikunir toll road in East Jakarta. Most of the dead were believed
\nto be passengers on board the Semarang-registered Jaya Bakti
\nSuper bus which was traveling from Jakarta to Purwodadi in
\nCentral Java. Thirty-one died on impact.<\/p>\n
Sept. 26<\/p>\n
A Garuda Indonesia Airbus-300-B4 airplane crashed shortly
\nbefore landing at Polonia Airport, Medan, North Sumatra, killing
\nall 234 on board.<\/p>\n
The cause of one of the country's worst airline accidents has
\nnot been determined. Investigators are still examining the
\nairplane's black box.<\/p>\n
Oct. 7<\/p>\n
A truck carrying dozens of people plunged into a 25-meter deep
\nravine in the East Timor district of Ermera in the afternoon.
\nSeventeen people died and dozens were injured.<\/p>\n
Oct. 19<\/p>\n
Twenty-eight people died when a ferry boat collided with a
\ntugboat towing a coal barge on the Barito River in Central
\nKalimantan.<\/p>\n
Visibility of less than five meters due to the haze from
\nforest fires was said to be one of the causes. But the boat,
\nwhich was two meters wide and 13 meters long, was also considered
\ntoo small to be carrying 65 passengers.<\/p>\n
Nov. 4<\/p>\n
A fully loaded interisland bus collided with a speeding train
\nin Kota Bumi, North Lampung, killing 25 people.<\/p>\n
The collision occurred at a precarious crossing which was also
\nthe sight of a similar crash two years earlier which claimed 35
\nlives.<\/p>\n
On the same day in Beusa village, East Aceh, 10 died when an
\nintercity bus collided head-on with a truck carrying pine logs.<\/p>\n
Witnesses said the bus was heading toward North Sumatra when
\nit hit the truck which was traveling in the opposite direction.
\nThe truck's load of logs rolled onto the bus when the vehicles
\ncollided.<\/p>\n
Nov. 14<\/p>\n
A boat carrying 40 Indonesian workers returning from Penang,
\nMalaysia sank after being hit by strong waves in the Strait of
\nMalacca off Belawan port, North Sumatra. The boat was heading to
\nTanjung Balai and Belawan. Eighteen people were rescued by local
\nfishermen. All the workers were believed to come from Central
\nJava and Aceh.<\/p>\n
Nov. 24<\/p>\n
Seven people died when a passenger bus collided with a truck
\non Pamanukan road, Sukasari village, Subang regency, West Java.<\/p>\n
Police said the bus, headed toward Cikampek at great speed,
\ntried to overtake another vehicle and hit the truck, loaded with
\nsand, coming from the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
Dec. 8<\/p>\n
Fire gutted the top four floors of one of Bank Indonesia's new
\n25-story twin towers in Central Jakarta, killing 15 people.<\/p>\n
Nine of the victims suffocated to death in elevators while the
\nothers burned to death. City police are still investigating the
\ncase, but the lack of an adequately installed fire fighting
\nsystem in the building is believed to be the cause.<\/p>\n
Dec. 19<\/p>\n
A SilkAir Boeing 737-300 went down in the estuary of a river,
\nnorth of Palembang, North Sumatra. All 104 on board were killed.<\/p>\n
The cause of the crash is still under investigation but
\nwitnesses claim they saw the plane explode in midair. (09\/mds)<\/p>",
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