Blood samples show driver intoxicated

JAKARTA (JP): Forensic experts yesterday found a high level of alcohol in the blood of a separated head and a body believed to be the driver's of the bus involved in Sunday's accident on the Cakung-Cikunir toll road in East Jakarta.

Police said that the driver had surpassed the maximum speed of 100 kilometers per hour before the accident, which has killed at least 35 people and dubbed as one of the country's worst road crashes.

Surviving passengers also accused the driver for driving recklessly and ignoring the conductor's advice to reduce the speed.

Reports said that the driver was not the original driver for the intercity Jaya Bakti Super bus but hired by the authoritative driver to do so.

Speaking with reporters, Minister of Transportation Haryanto Dhanutirto expressed his concern over the head-on collision between the bus and a dump truck at the Cakung-Cikunir toll road.

"If necessary, we will revoke the license of the bus company," he said yesterday.

The death toll of the accident which occurred at the KM 16.300 at 6:30 p.m. Sunday surpassed the number of dead victims in two previous worse road crashes.

In March 1994, a reckless minibus driver plunged his vehicle into Sunter river in North Jakarta, killing 33 passengers and seriously wounding dozen others.

In March last year, 31 people were killed and dozen others badly injured when a speeding bus turned into an inferno after smashing three cars parking at the Jagorawi toll road here.

According to police, the Sunday's bus-truck collision occurred after the bus driver intended to overpass a petrol truck in front of him at the two lane toll road, which has no barriers at all in the middle.

"He might be too surprised when seeing a dump truck heading on the opposite way," said City Police Spokesman Aritonang.

Some of the dead victims lost part of their bodies such as hands, fingers and legs. Some others got their vital parts, such as heads, badly injured.

Thirty people onboard the bus dead on the spot while the other five, including the dump truck driver, were died later.

At least six dying victims along with 12 injured victims were still being treated at UKI hospital in East Jakarta, Mitra Keluarga hospital and Bekasi General Hospital in Bekasi.

According to forensic expert Mun'im Idris of the state-owned Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, the blood at the head and the body of a man found separately infront of the bus believed to be the driver's contained a high level of alcohol.

A rough test on the two body parts, which were badly injured by pieces of windshield glasses, revealed that every one cubic centimeters of the blood contained 80 milligrams percent of alcohol, said Mun'im, a noted forensic expert in the country.

Even only with the nose, "we can smell strong odor of alcohol from the body and the head," he told reporters.

"You know that a level of 50 mg percent could already affect our concentration and motoric nerves, so you can imagine the effect of 80 mg percent of alcohol in our blood circulation," he said.

However, he said, an autopsy would be carried out soon.

While the driver could not be tried for he was already dead, police said that they are still waiting for the arrival of representatives of the Semarang-based (Central Java) bus company to explain the status of the driver.

"If he was not the authorized driver, we could sue the original driver for his negligence that had caused deaths," said City Police Spokesman Lt. Col. E. Aritonang.

"If he was an authorized driver and the bus company knew that he had often taken drugs or alcohol but kept allowing him to drive, the company could be sued and asked to cover the loss," he said.

According to Article 23 of Law No. 14 issued in 1992 on traffic and public transportation, drivers are required to drive their vehicles properly and, therefore, are forbidden to consume alcoholic drinks or drugs.

Violators could be punished with a maximum imprisonment term of three months or fined Rp 3 million (US$1,016) at the most.

Preliminary information said that most of the bus passengers were casual workers in the city. They were carrying cash money and household goods for their relatives at their hometowns in Central Java.

While collecting the remains at the site of accident, police by chance arrested a woman allegedly stolen jewelries from the dead bodies after pretending as one of the victims.

By yesterday evening, hundreds of people, including relatives of the victims, have come flocking the Cipto Mangunkusumo morgue since 6 a.m. after reading newspapers and watching televisions.

Sulasno, 30, a resident of Pondok Bambu in East Jakarta screamed hysterically as he found his brother's black stripes shirt attached on a badly damaged body laying on the floor of the morgue.

"It's him!," he cried pointing at the body identified as Bangun Nayat, a construction worker of PT Total Bangun Persada.

Sulasno was one of the panic and anguish relatives and friends who had come to check their beloved ones in the morgue.

Iyan, 23, a housemaid at Jatiwaringin, Pondok Gede, in East Jakarta fainted as she learned that a close friend of her, Muryati, 18, a housemaid, was among the victims.

Iyan said that Muryati was called by her parents at the village to meet a man who had proposed to marry her.

The body of the dump truck driver, Basri, 32, was the first remain taken out from the hospital by his family and immediately driven to Serang, West Java, for burial.

A relative of him, Sanan, said that Basri, father of four children, was heading to Jl. Pademangan, North Jakarta, after delivered sand to Cikampek before the accident occurred.

"We haven't told his wife yet because she was still weak after delivering her fourth child three months ago," Sanan said.

However, not all people left the morgue in mourn, some came out with relief feelings as they did not find their relatives there.

Sinta Saragih was one of them. She heard the news from an early news program on TV and hurriedly went to the morgue as she knew that his younger brother, Berlian Saragih, planned to go to Salatiga in Central Java with the same bus.

"I knew that he would go to a seminar in Salatiga and he bought a Jaya Bakti Super ticket," she said.

"But I thank God, he was not here," she added. (04/07/cst/jun/bsr)

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