Ancol accident survivor still in critical condition

Ancol accident survivor still in critical condition

JAKARTA (JP): Tjandrawati Arifin, the only survivor in
Sunday's horrifying traffic accident at the Kemayoran flyover in
Ancol, North Jakarta, remained in critical condition on Monday.

The 37-year-old mother is currently at the Pertamina Hospital
in South Jakarta undergoing intensive medical treatment, unable
to disclose her grim experience or how she managed to escape the
dreadful fire that killed her son, her driver and a friend.

"I managed to speak to her last night, but the medical staff
prevented me from talking to her longer as she is in critical
condition," husband Lie Haryanto, tearfully told The Jakarta Post
at the hospital on Monday.

According to Lie, a property contractor, he still had no idea
how his wife Tjen-tjen, Tjandrawati's nickname, survived the
fatal collision or how the accident happened.

The midday accident took the lives of five people, including
the couple's 13-year-old son Ricky, Tjen-tjen's friend and owner
of the car Siauw Mei, Siauw Mei's driver Rusdi and two men in the
fuel truck that was carrying 16,000 liters of gas.

Most of the deceased died of severe burns.

Lie said he was first informed of the accident by the medical
staff at Husada Hospital, where his wife was first treated.

But a cousin of Tjen-tjen, Hendri, a computer technician,
quoted witnesses at the site as saying Tjen-tjen and Siauw Mei
were sitting on the middle seat of the Isuzu Panther minivan,
while Ricky was sitting in front, next to the driver, Rusdi.

Hendri, who had accompanied Lie on Monday at the hospital,
said he managed to speak to witnesses at the scene shortly after
the accident because he had just arrived at Tjen-tjen's house on
Jl. Pantai Sanur, some 600 meters from the accident spot, for a
visit, when the accident took place.

Some witnesses, he said, saw Tjen-tjen attempt to pull her son
out from the front seat seconds before the minivan, which had
been hit by the fuel truck, turned into a sea of flames.

"She finally had to leave the car hastily (without Ricky) as
she was already suffering from severe burns," Hendri said.

"Tjen-tjen, who was doused with water by some street vendors
after escaping the inferno, could only hysterically scream,
'Ricky .... save my son, save my son...'" he added.

Iyet, another relative of the survivor, recalled that she
asked Ricky to join her at a relatives' wedding in Rangkasbitung,
West Java on Sunday morning.

"But he preferred to go out with his mother, saying
Rangkasbitung was far away and the weather would be hot there,"
she said.

Tjen-tjen and her son were on their way to accompany Siauw Mei
to attend a funeral of Siauw Mei's friend's mother at Husada
Hospital when the minivan collided with the fuel truck.

Lie said Ricky, a first-year student at Gandhi Memorial Junior
High School, would be cremated on Wednesday at the Atmajaya
Hospital in West Jakarta.

"He was a clever boy, always at the top of his class during
elementary school," he said.

Local police believe the accident was caused when the driver
of the fuel truck lost control of the vehicle after its brakes
failed. (asa)