Bus driver may get 15 years

Bus driver may get 15 years

JAKARTA (JP): Government prosecutors demanded yesterday that Ramses Silitonga, the driver of a Metro Mini bus that plunged into a river killing 33 passengers last year, be sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

The prosecutors, HPW Soekewi, Haruddin and Chanifuddin took turns reading the indictment letter before presiding judge Soemarjono at the North Jakarta District Court, Antara reported.

According to the prosecutors, the defendant knew all along that driving his overloaded bus at speeds of up to 90 kilometers per hour would endanger his passengers.

"Moreover, before the accident occurred many passengers had warned the defendant to slow down. But he continued speeding despite screams from passengers that there were children aboard," said prosecutor Haruddin. "Even his assistant Pontas Pakpahan also warned him to stop speeding."

"There was an intention to murder," the prosecutors concluded.

The prosecutors said Ramses, a bus driver since 1984, was familiar with the conditions of the road where the accident took place. "Had he listened to the pleas of the passengers by slowing down, the accident would not have happened," the prosecutors said.

Another incriminating factor that prompted the prosecutors to demand the 15-year sentence was the fact that instead of helping his passengers, he fled the scene to avoid any responsibility.

Ramses has been accused of recklessly driving his Metromini bus P07 along Jl. Yos Sudarso in North Jakarta on March 6, 1994, between 80 and 90 kilometers per hour.

Ramses, 33, allegedly lost control of the bus, which scraped along the concrete sidewalk wall before plunging into the heavily polluted Sunter River in North Jakarta.

Twenty people died at the scene of the accident, 13 died later in hospital and another 13 were injured.

Ramses evaded the police and went into hiding in North Sumatra, his home province. He reportedly changed his name to Ucok Sitompul in order to secure employment as a contract worker at a timber mill in Tanjung Mulia village in the Kampung Rakyat subdistrict, Labuhan regency, North Sumatra, where he was captured by police on Aug. 10 last year.

At one time, there was even a prize tag offered by an anonymous for anyone who could inform the police of his whereabouts.

The prosecutors said there were no factors that could have influenced them to commute the defendant's sentence." Ramses was also detained once before by police on petty crime charges," they said.

The trial was adjourned until Monday, April 17, when Ramses' lawyers are scheduled to read their defense statement.

His trial was marred by controversy with many of the victims failing to turn up to testify amidst reports that they were intimidated from appearing in the court. (bas)