Army chief blames driver for crash

Suherdjoko, The Jakarta Post, Semarang

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu has blamed the driver of a public transportation pickup that collided recently with a military armored vehicle, killing 18 people in Temanggung regency, Central Java.

The pickup was carrying 22 people, far beyond its capacity of only nine people, he argued.

"The driver (of the pickup) is to blame for the accident. How could he brake his vehicle and stop on time when it was so overloaded?" Ryamizard said on the sidelines of the inauguration of the new Diponegoro military commander, Maj. Gen. Sunarso, in Semarang on Wednesday.

The covered pickup's driver was among the 18 people killed in the fatal crash. Sixteen of the dead victims were passengers of the car, while the two others were soldiers. Seven others were injured.

The collision took place in Ngipik village, Pring Surat subdistrict, when the French-made MX 13 self-propelled cannon was on its way to its base in Kebumen district. It had just been repaired in neighboring Yogyakarta.

According to the Army, the engine and the brakes were fine when the collision took place, and the tank was traveling behind another tank at a speed of some 20 kilometers per hour as procedures required.

Local military officers have said the armored vehicle that was in front had already flashed its headlights at the pickup to warn it that there was another vehicle behind.

Ryamizard stressed that it was not the military vehicle that rammed into the public transportation vehicle.

"The top speed of the armored vehicle was only 20 kilometers per hour. It was hit by the pickup, which was speeding down an incline," he said.

The four-star Army chief denied that the tank was zigzagging at the time of the accident. "The most advanced Scorpion tank cannot even zigzag. So how do you expect an armored vehicle made in 1960 to do so?" he queried.

He said the pickup plunged into a ravine after the crash because the driver lost consciousness and could not brake.

It was not clear if Ryamizard was revealing the results of the investigation into the crash by a joint police and military team.

The team have questioned a number of witnesses over what really happened.