Driver awarded for foiling bus hijack

JAKARTA (JP): The Bumiputera Insurance company awarded Rp 5 million (US$ 2,105) over the weekend to a public bus driver who bravely stopped students hijacking his bus.

Suratno Hadisuwito, a director of Bumiputera Insurance, said that Mangaraja R. Tobing, the driver of a city bus on the Kampung Rambutan-Kota route, had stopped 72 students from the Cawang technical high school hijacking the bus early this month after they were involved in a brawl.

"Nowadays, it is difficult to find such a person. The award was entirely spontaneous," Suratno was quoted by Antara as saying.

The students, some armed with steel rulers, tried to stop Tobing entering a toll road, but he bravely kept his course. He risked his life by ignoring the students' threats and managed to signal to a highway police patrol. The police arrested the students.

Suratno said Tobing had performed "a highly social responsibility by putting the public's interest before his own".

Suratno said the insurance company also awarded the four police officers who had arrested the students. (07)