14 killed as buses collide in Cirebon
Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon
Two overloaded buses from the same operator fatally collided head-on in the West Java city of Cirebon on Sunday, killing at least 14 people, with 21 others injured.
However, Cirebon Police immediately decided not to continue the investigation into the collision because the drivers of the two Dewi Sri buses, both serving the Jakarta-Purwokerto route, were among the dead.
"The investigation into the case cannot be continued to trial because the suspects are dead," Cirebon Police chief Sr. Comr. Sardjono said after visiting some of the victims at the city's Gunung Jati public hospital.
The crash took place at 11:05 a.m. on Jl. Raya Kertasura in Kapetakan subdistrict, around 41 kilometers from Cirebon city, causing a severe traffic jam for more than three hours on the highway.
Of the 14 dead victims, four people, including the two drivers -- 40-year-old Taubatan Nasuha and Saefudin, 35 -- died instantly at the scene, while the remaining 10 died on their way to the hospitals.
Cirebon Police Traffic Division chief Adj. Comr. Zaerusi told The Jakarta Post at the crash scene that Nasuha's bus, traveling from Jakarta, was trying to overtake a motorcycle ahead, but lost control and collided head-on with Saefudin's bus, as the latter was catching up with another bus, a Dedy Jaya.
Many of the passengers were asleep at the time, he added.
"At the scene of the accident, a long bend, the drivers of the two respective buses were unable to control their vehicles, and a severe collision was unavoidable," Zaerusi said.
As a result of the head-on collision, Saefudin's bus was thrown sideways and it hit a house belonging to local resident Sukiti, 60.
The 200-square-meter building was seriously damaged, but there were no reports of injuries to Sukiti's family.
"There were no victims from the house owner's family because at the time of accident, all of them were working in the fields," Zaerusi said.
The two buses were badly destroyed in the horrific crash, with shattered glass left all over the street and the area in its vicinity.
Zaerusi said the police had not yet identified most of the dead and injured, currently at the Gunung Jati public hospital and private Pelabuhan hospital.
Sardjono blamed the fatal crash on "human error".
"Evidence from the field investigation and eyewitness accounts indicate that the accident was caused by human error on the part of the drivers," he said
Meanwhile one survivor, Soesilo Soebagjo, a 44-year-old passenger from Jebres village in Surakarta, Central Java, said the bus carrying him and others to Jakarta was traveling at very high speed at the time.
"When it passed the long bend at the accident scene, the bus driver (Saefudin) seemed determined to overtake a Dedy Jaya bus. But the driver lost control and hit a Dewi Sri bus traveling in the opposite direction," he told the Post.
Sakuri, a 44-year-old survivor of the Dewi Sri bus traveling to Purwokerto, confirmed that his bus was going extremely fast while trying to overtake a motorcycle ahead. "The bus then skidded to the right and collided with another Dewi Sri coming from the opposite direction," he added.