Brebes train crash kills 54

Brebes train crash kills 54

The Jakarta Post, Brebes

The live of dozens of holiday travelers well shattered by
tragedy as apparent negligence spilt blood on the tracks in
a head-on train collision near Brebes, Central Java, causing the
death of up to 54 people.

Two overloaded economy-class trains - one heading east from
Jakarta towards Yogyakarta and the other traveling west to the
capital from Surabaya - collided at about 4:30 a.m. on Tuesday in
the small Ketanggungan railway station, some 20 kilometers south
of Brebes.

PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) immediately blamed the 13th
deadly train accident this year on "human error".

It was another agonizing testament to the poor management of
one of the nation's primary modes of transportation.
Particularly, because it occurred during the annual peak for
railway travel.

Apart from some 54 dead, at least three dozen were injured,
many of whom remain in critical condition.

Like previous accidents, this one apparently could have been
prevented.

The paramount mystery will be why the engineer of the Empu
Jaya train traveling from Jakarta ignored signals and veered at
high speed into the track occupied by the Gaya Baru Malam train
which was still parked at the station.

Was the engineer dozing and ignored the signals prohibiting
him from using the track, which officials on Tuesday said were
clearly marked?

Head of PT KAI in Cirebon, Abdul Majid, said the Empu Jaya
train should not have sped into the fateful track, claiming that
a red signal located some 300 meters west of the crash scene was
already switched on.

Remarkably the engineer in question, 54-year-old Muhammad
To'at, survived, albeit still under intensive care, and police
guard, at Tanjung general hospital in Brebes.

But his colleague in the Gaya Baru Malam train, Sutrisno, was
killed instantly.

Minister of Transportation Agum Gumelar, at the crash site,
also seemed to suspect that To'at had fallen asleep at the
controls.

Other than that there was little else that Agum could say
other than to apologize and extend the government's condolences
to the bereaved families.

Police are now left to question surviving passengers and
railway officials, including Ketanggungan railway station chief
Puji Effendi.

The tag of "death carriage" may not be an exaggeration to
describe the Empu Jaya train as this was its third deadly
accident in four months. The first two claimed 44 lives.

All were a result of human error.

The scene at Ketanggungan station on Tuesday was one of
mangled devastation and carnage as at least four carriages and
both locomotives from the trains were derailed in the impact,
some careening into a nearby rice field.

The fact that the official death toll at this point has
reached 54 may be somewhat of a miracle since as many as 1,200
people were squeezed into each of the trains.

For several hours after the accident rescue workers were still
hard at work using steel cutting equipment to free those still
trapped inside what must have seemed an iron coffin.

Many of those who survived were thrown out on impact while
others smashed windows in a panic to escape.

The dead and injured were taken to at least five hospitals in
Brebes and neighboring towns of Tegal and Cirebon.

Though rescue work was completed by late afternoon, there was
still no definitive figure on the number of dead.

Data from the scene recorded some 54 dead with 28 seriously
injured and eight others with light wounds.

Gatot Hamka a PT KAI spokesman in Brebes said the information
had been gathered from hospitals treating the victims.

Ominously he conceded that "the number may continue to
rise...Many victims are in critical condition."

But another official, Suhartono a spokesman of the railway
company in Cirebon, put the death toll at 30.

He said 24 of the dead had been identified, while the
remaining six were still unknown.

A check of four hospitals in the area -- the Tanjung general
hospital in Brebes, the Harapan Anda and Kardinah hospitals in
Tegal and Gunung Jati hospital in Cirebon -- found that they had
a total of 32 dead from the accident.

To make matters worse, two other train accidents occurred on
Tuesday in two East Java towns, killing three people.

The Matarmaja train, serving the Jakarta-Malang route hit a
minivan in the Talun subdistrict of Blitar regency killing three
passengers in the minivan.

The other accident occurred in Jember when the Rengganis train
serving the Malang-Banyuwangi route derailed. At least 45
passengers were injured.