Fatal crash bus driver admits taking sedatives

BOGOR, West Java (JP): The Kramatdjati bus driver charged with negligence that resulted 31 people burning to death inside his bus told the Bogor District Court yesterday that he had taken two barbiturate pills before leaving the Kampung Rambutan terminal for Bandung on March 23.

"I found the pills inside the match box I borrowed from an unidentified man at the terminal at about 5 a.m.," Ag. bin Yacob told the court.

He said he found 10 pills in the box. He stole the pills and took two of them before taking a nap in the bus until 8.30 a.m.

According to a statement from a doctor read by judge Into. A Tanjung, the pills, locally called Nipam, are a kind of sleeping pill and sedative.

People who take one pill usually fall asleep minutes later, the report said.

"But after waking up there will be a negative side effect. The user will be weak and dazed," Into added.

Ag., however, denied this, saying that he felt fine when driving the bus and did not feel drowsy.

After leaving Bogor at around 10 a.m., the driver said that shortly after passing one of the Jagorawi toll road gates the traffic became heavier.

Zigzag

He acknowledged that some passengers had warned him not to speed up and zigzag. He therefore slowed down a little.

"My bus was in the left lane behind a tanker when all of a sudden the driver of the tanker in front of me put on the brakes to stop abruptly. I could have driven off to the right, but there were many vehicles around," he said.

Ag described how the bus then crashed into the tanker which had stopped behind three other stationary cars.

"I did not see the three cars because my view was blocked by the tanker," the defendant said.

When asked by judge Into whether he pushed the button of the hydraulic door shortly after the crash, which would have enabled the passengers to get off the bus, Ag said he disembarked from the bus to check the damage to the tanker and his bus.

"I did not see any spark of fire. I did not know how there could have been a fire," he said, adding that he forgot to open the bus' automatic doors.

He only noticed that there was a fire on the top of one of the cars. This spread to the bus.

"I would have run back to the bus to rescue the passengers but two police officers caught and handcuffed me," Ag. said

"You should have told the police officers how to open the doors of the bus," Judge Into said. "I was nervous and panicked upon seeing the fire," Ag. replied.

Answering a question from presiding judge Usman Wahab, he said he was driving at 80 kilometers per hour when the accident occurred. But the judge expressed doubts about the truth of the defendant's explanation.

"I can hardly believe it. I think you drove the bus much faster. If the speed was only 80 kmh it would have been okay and I believe the accident would not have happened," Usman said.

Only about 10 people attended the trial apart from the judges, the prosecutors and the defendant's lawyers GM. Associates Legal Consultants.

The presiding judge adjourned the trial until July 29 when the prosecutors are scheduled to announce their sentence demand. (21/bas)