Eight killed in two separate road accidents

Eight killed in two separate road accidents

Nana Rukmana and Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post,
Cirebon/Bandung

Two fatal road accidents occurred late on Sunday, one in the West
Java town of Cirebon and the second in Madina district in North
Sumatra, resulting in the deaths of eight people in total, while
on Monday, a train was derailed in the West Java regency of
Garut.

In Cirebon, at least six people were killed and five others
were seriously injured after a Dedy Jaya bus crashed into a group
of local residents on their way home from a religious function in
the Cirebon village of Suranenggala.

Five of the deceased were from Suranenggala village, namely
Armadi, 72, Iskak, 75, Erman, 20, Hadi, 20 and Badrudin, 17. The
other victim was Kliwon Diah, 75, a resident of the neighboring
Kertasura village.

Five other people, who were severely injured in the accident,
are being treated at Pelabuhan Kota Hospital in Cirebon.

First. Insp. Sunarto, the chief of Kapetakan Police
subprecinct, said that the accident began when hundreds of
residents in Suranenggala and Kertasura villages were attending a
post-Idul Fitri prayer at a mosque in Suranenggala village.

After the function, many of the residents crossed the street
to go home.

As they were crossing the street, two buses from bus company
Dedy Jaya suddenly sped along the street very fast. Warja'i, the
driver of the first bus, had a chance to brake. But, Thobroni,
who was driving the other bus behind him, was apparently unaware
that a large group of people were crossing the street.

Surprised that Warja'i suddenly braked, Thobroni tried to
avoid the bus in front of him by quickly swinging sharply to the
right. He was able to avoid hitting the bus in front, but he then
ploughed into the crowd.

Sunarto said that Thobroni attempted to flee, but hundreds of
local residents caught him while he was running across a paddy
field. He was then dragged to Kapetakan Police subprecinct by the
residents for investigation into the accident.

The accident fueled tension in the area as angry residents
tried to stop every Dedy Jaya bus passing the area.

The residents stopped three buses and pelted them with stones,
but police personnel were able to prevent the residents from
burning down the buses.

The police have instructed bus company Dedy Jaya to avoid the
area.

Separately, a truck rammed into a minibus in Madina district
in North Sumatra, killing two people. The accident in the
district, some 420 kilometers south of the North Sumatra capital
of Medan, also injured dozens of bus passengers, eyewitnesses
said on Monday, as quoted by Antara news agency.

The two fatalities were a 50-year-old man identified as Daud,
and a woman, while the injured were brought to a hospital in
Penyabungan.

Meanwhile, the Pasundan economy-class train was derailed in
Garut district in West Java on its way from the provincial
capital of Bandung to Surabaya, the capital of East Java
province, on Monday morning.

No fatalities were reported in the incident, but the incident
caused hours of delays for other trains.

Akhmad Sujadi, the spokesperson of PT Kereta Api Indonesia's
(PT KAI) Operational Region III in Bandung, said that the
condition of the railway track was probably the cause of the
derailment.

The derailment was the fourth in the past three weeks in the
West Java area, raising concerns among the public of the
capability of PT KAI, the sole train operator in the country, to
assure the safety of train passengers.

Due to the accident, rail services from Nagrek in Garut to
Bandung were suspended for more than eight hours.