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.