Cabbie miraculously survives being crushed
Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Suparmin, 31, a taxi driver, could not conceal his elation when describing an amazing incident that almost took his life, after a huge container fell onto his taxi on Tuesday morning.
"I thought I was a goner ... It was a really miraculous escape: Thanks be to God -- Allahu Akbar (God is great)," said Suparmin, a taxi driver with Pusaka Lintas taxi, his face still etched in panic, with trembling gestures and reddened eyes.
Suparmin told The Jakarta Post that he was driving the taxi from Jl. Tambak toward Tebet, South Jakarta, when he saw a container truck with engine trouble in the middle of the road only 30 meters in front of Pasaraya Manggarai, South Jakarta.
"I thought everything was going to be alright, as I saw several police officers at the scene directing traffic. However, all of a sudden, the truck moved backward and the steel container dropped off, falling right onto my car," said Suparmin.
Miraculously, the container, which also fell onto two other cars, two motorcycles, and a bajaj (three-wheeled motorized taxi), squashed his taxi slowly, so that Suparmin was able to break the windshield.
He managed to slip away from the wreck with the help of passersby just before the container almost completely flattened his taxi to the ground.
No casualties were sustained in the incident as all the victims managed to escape from their vehicles in time, but Achmad Sunarya, 35, the bajaj driver, had to be taken to Cipto Mangunkusumo general hospital for treatment due to a possible internal fracture to his waist.
Other victims, Bambang Sugiarto, 46, driving a Kijang van; Arifin, 22, on a Honda Astrea motorcycle; Supriadi, 35, on a Vespa motorcycle and Panther van driver Ilham, 22, and his passengers, Yasul Yasir, 70, and Adinda, 20, suffered no injuries at all.
Chief Brig. Ujang Anwar of the Manggarai Police post nearby said the incident had occurred because the container was overloaded.
"(The container's) maximum load was only 20 tons, but it weighed about 28 tons," said Ujang.
That's why, he added, the container truck's engine broke down before the container fell onto passing vehicles.
"We have arrested the truck driver, Paryono, 27, and his mate, Tasmin, 25, both residents of Indramayu, West Java, for negligence," said Ujang.
The incident forced police to close the road and reroute traffic for hours as five tow trucks belonging to the City Transportation Agency were deployed to tow away the container and the wrecked vehicles.