Court to hear Grogol overpass collapse case soon

Court to hear Grogol overpass collapse case soon

JAKARTA (JP): The West Jakarta police have completed the
dossiers on two executives of South Korean Hanbo General
Contractors held most responsible for the recent collapse of the
Grogol overpass. The collapse killed three workers and injured 18
others.

"We'll submit the dossiers to the Prosecutor's Office as soon
as we get a copy of the report of the collapse of the overpass
currently being examined by National Police forensic scientists,"
West Jakarta Police Chief Lt. Col. Hari Pribadi told The Jakarta
Post yesterday.

The forensic report, scheduled to be completed soon, will be
used by police as supporting material evidence, Hari said.

"The dossiers have been completed based on available material
evidence and the testimonies of dozens of witnesses, even though
the two suspects deny that the March 22 incident occurred because
of their negligence," the officer said.

The two men are Kim Hyun Woo and Lee Byung Woo, the general
superintendent of the company and the construction manager of the
project respectively.

According to Hari, it was Lee who allegedly assigned the
workers to remove the bracings supporting the loop ramp several
days earlier than the recommended date.

The two Koreans were the highest personnel of the project at
the site when the overpass collapsed, Hari said.

"So far, we've found no other parties, including among the
local executives, that could be named as suspects in this case,"
said the officer.

The project's contractors are Hanbo General Contractors and
the Indonesian PT Bumi Karsa, along with other consultants,
including Japanese based PCI & Yec and the Indonesian PT Bandung
Industrial Engineering Consultants.

The accident on the Grogol loop ramp project, designed to link
Jl. Daan Mogot and Jl. S. Parman, occurred at around 8 a.m. on
March 22 when a 30-meter, 500-ton section collapsed.

Ten days after the incident, police named the two Hanbo
executives as the parties most responsible for the accident that
claimed the lives of three workers and injured several others.

The conclusion was reached by the local police after
repeatedly interrogating Kim and Lee and questioning 22
witnesses, including injured workers, security officers and local
executives of the project.

If found guilty, the two will face a maximum prison term of
five years each as stipulated in article 359 of the Criminal
Code.

The police have confiscated the two suspects' passports to
prevent them from leaving the country.

Procedure

In a related development yesterday, a government team formed
to investigate the collapse has reinforced preliminary findings
that a technical mistake led to the accident.

Minister of Public Works Radinal Moochtar said the technical
mistake was the removal of the bracings without the approval of
the project's supervisors.

Supervisors consist of a consortium of Pacific Consultant
International and Yachiyo Engineering Co. Ltd and associates, and
Indonesian partners.

"This may have been caused by overconfidence on the part of
the contractor," Radinal said.

"We must be more careful in conducting routine things because
what appears to be minor cases could have serious consequences,
just like an expert can still burn his or her fingers," he said.

The supervisors, he said, are also guilty of lax control.

The difficulty with a consortium, said Radinal, is that each
party may think the other has handled a problem.

"The degree of guilt of both parties is yet to be determined,"
Radinal said.

The fact-finding team formed by the ministry will cooperate
with the police, Radinal said.

The head of the team, E.L.M. Malonda, is out of town.

Earlier an official of the ministry said routine steps such as
the removal of bracings is often disregarded and not recorded on
the daily work sheet.

However, such details may have to be included in future to
prevent untoward things from happening like accidents, the
official said.

Answering questions on whether the Hanbo company could still
be trusted to carry out projects here, Radinal only said all
parties were vulnerable to neglect.

"But we would have to choose between those which have records
(of neglect) and those who don't," he said.

He repeated earlier statements that the contractor should
complete the project in line with the contract. (bsr/08/anr)