Careless bus drivers kill five in South, East Jakarta

JAKARTA (JP): Careless bus drivers caused two accidents and the deaths of a teacher and four students over the weekend, police said.

Nur Intan, 27, a teacher at the private SMA Mandiri high school in Depok, was returning home from shopping on Saturday at the Blok M shopping center, South Jakarta, when she was hit by a bus around 10 a.m.

Witnesses threw stones at the Metro Mini bus plying the Ciledug-Blok M route, and the driver was detained by the police.

On Jl. DI Panjaitan, in East Jakarta, four high school students died Friday morning when their bus hit a truck parked on the side of the road.

Imron, Adi Hasan and Ricky, were smashed between the truck and the Mayasari Bhakti bus number 44. They had been hanging in the doorway of the crowded bus at the time of the accident around 7 a.m. The fourth student, Lukito, died Saturday in the private Persahabatan hospital in Rawamangun where two were still being treated as of yesterday.

The victims were among six students on their way to school, the private Kemala Bhayangkari technical high school in Cipinang.

City police spokesman Lt.Col. Edward Aritonang confirmed that the bus, plying the Cililitan-Pulogadung route, was speeding. It hit a minivan, called a mikrolet, on Jl. DI Panjaitan and the latter demanded that the Mayasari bus stop.

An argument followed between both drivers and the Mayasari driver sped off again. Both buses then raced against each other until the Mayasari hit one of several parked trucks in Jatinegara.

The driver and his conductor immediately fled. Aritonang could not yet confirm reports that the microlet driver was beaten by onlookers before he was detained. (04/anr)