Bus set on fire in C. Jakarta

Bus set on fire in C. Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Angry residents set fire to a Metro Mini bus
after it hit and killed a hotel employee on Jl. Let. Jend.
Suprapto in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta.

It was the second bus burning incident after residents on Jl.
Warung Buncit, in South Jakarta, set fire to a Kopaja bus which
hit and killed an eight-year-old girl Monday.

Cempaka Putih Sub-Precinct Police Chief Maj. Tito said that
Wahyudi, a Gran Melia Hotel telephone operator, was riding a
motorcycle with his girlfriend, Tutut Slamet Widyastuti, when a
speeding bus hit them at about 7:30 a.m.

"Wahyudi died at the scene and Tutut passed out. She suffered
head injuries," Tito said.

He said angry locals, including ojek (motorcycle taxi)
drivers, threw stones at the bus, smashing its windows.

They set fire to the bus plying the Senen-Pondok Kopi route
after the bus driver, identified as Zaenudin, escaped, he said.

Zaenudin, 23, of Jl. Cipinang Muara, in East Jakarta,
surrendered himself to a nearby military station, he said.

Dozens of military officers on duty to safeguard the last day
of the campaign period came to the scene, calming the angry
crowd.

The remains of the bus were taken to a nearby police station
for further investigation, he said.

Police rushed Tutut to the nearby Jakarta Islamic Hospital.

Tutut, an employee at Melawai Optic on Jl. Salemba, in Central
Jakarta, left the hospital to identify Wahyudi's body at Cipto
Mangunkusumo General Hospital's morgue.

In tears, she said she could hardly remember anything.

"I was talking to Wahyudi on the way to work when the bus hit
us," she said.

Gran Melia's telephone operator supervisor, Reza Bovier, said
that 25-year-old Wahyudi, who lived on Jl. Ampera in Cilandak,
East Jakarta, had worked at the hotel for only two months.

Meanwhile, Metro Mini's operations manager Timso Silaen said
the company regretted the incident and would donate money to the
dead man's family. (jun)