Blood samples show driver intoxicated

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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