Dead driver among 3 suspects in deadly toll road pileup
Dead driver among 3 suspects in deadly toll road pileup
Evi Mariani and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Jakarta Police named on Thursday three drivers, including one
who died, as suspects in an accident that claimed six lives and
injured 10 others on Jagorawi toll road on Wednesday, soon after
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono instructed police to punish
whoever was responsible.
Based on observation of the crash scene and statements of
witnesses, the police concluded that the three drivers hit the
ill-fated chartered public minivan packed with eight adults and
five children who were going on a family outing to Ragunan Zoo in
South Jakarta from Bogor, West Java.
"The suspects are the driver of a Kijang minivan, identified
as Wongso, the driver of a pickup truck who was killed in the
crash, Hidayat, and Iwan Warga Sasmita, the driver of PO Garuda
bus," the police spokesman Sr. Comr. Tjiptono said.
Should the case go to trial, a suspect may face a maximum of
five years in prison for negligence leading to the death of
others, as stipulated in the Criminal Code.
The investigation on Thursday revealed that the pileup took
place when the highway patrol halted the traffic to allow the
President and his entourage to pass the toll road on the way from
his private residence in Cikeas, Bogor, to the State Palace.
Previously, the police accused the bus driver of ignoring an
instruction to stop at Km 13 near Cibubur, East Jakarta, and
hitting a stationary car in front, causing a pileup involving at
least seven cars.
The accident prompted the presidential spokesman Andi
Mallarangeng to hold a press conference on Wednesday and the
President himself spoke on Thursday to avert a negative reaction
from the public.
The police are under fire because the accident raised
speculation that they halted the traffic too abruptly, not
leaving enough time for drivers to brake.
"We did our job, we cleared the highway accordingly to
standard procedures," Tjiptono said.
Head of Jakarta Traffic Police Sr. Comr. Djoko Susilo claimed
that his officers had ordered passing vehicles to stop three
kilometers, or at least 10 minutes, before the entourage passed.
In a press conference held late on Wednesday, head of the
traffic division of the National Police Brig. Gen. Utjin Sudiana
claimed that a patrol vehicle had alerted motorists to move aside
by zig-zagging along the road, three kilometers before the
stopping site.
However, he acknowledged that no police officers were standing
by on the roadside to alert motorists so they could slow down
before reaching the site.
Before leaving for Chile to attend the APEC Summit on
Thursday, Susilo personally paid his condolences to the families
of the six people who died in the crash including two children.
"As a part of my moral responsibility, I have asked the
related ministries to provide financial support for the victims
as well as the deceased," the President said.