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)