Eight people die in toll road accident

JAKARTA (JP): Eight people in a Kijang van were killed and another was critically injured when the van and a PO Sinar Jaya public bus collided head on near Karawang, West Java on Sunday.

Antara reported on Monday that the crash took place at about 9 p.m., when the van, driven by Muchyi, skidded into the wrong lane of the Cikampek toll road as it sped toward Jakarta. The vehicle, carrying company employees who had spent the weekend at a tourist resort in Ciater, smashed into the bus and rolled several times before it caught fire.

Witnesses said seven of the van passengers were killed instantly while another died later at Karya Husada Hospital in Cikampek.

The driver was among the fatalities.

As of Monday, only the bodies of Dede, 18, Kamsiah, 24, Waskini, 20, and Darini, 16, all residents of Indramayu in West Java, and Ngadinin, 36, of Sragen, Central Java, were claimed by their respective families for burial.

A van passenger, Maya, 20, was still in a coma on Monday at the hospital where two bus passengers, identified as Ahmad Haryanto, 20, and Asirah, 18, are also being treated for serious injuries.