Four killed in chain collision

JAKARTA (JP): Four people were killed in a chain collision, involving a cement mixer, two city buses and two other vehicles, on the elevated Ir. Wiyoto Wiyono toll road in East Jakarta Saturday night. Seventeen others were injured.

Three of the fatalities, Sujaya, the cement mixer driver, Saefudin, a codriver of the mixer and Warsito, the driver of one of the two Mayasari Bhakti buses, died instantly.

The fourth victim was Karyono, who died in the Indonesian Christian University (UKI) hospital in East Jakarta yesterday.

The bodies were sent to the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta for postmortem examinations.

The collision, which took place at about 8:30 p.m., caused heavy congestion for hours on the toll road linking Cawang in East Jakarta to Tanjung Priok in North Jakarta.

It occurred when a pickup skidded, swung uncontrollably and ended up stopping facing the opposite direction, a traffic police officer from Kebon Nanas, East Jakarta, said.

The officer, who requested anonymity, said an air-conditioned Mayasari Bhakti bus traveling at high speed failed to avoid the stationary pickup.

"It was too late for the bus to stop as it happened so fast," he said.

The bus driver turned to the left and hit the cement mixer. So hard was the collision that the cement mixer smashed into the crash barrier, the officer said.

"The cement mixer also smashed into another, full, Mayasari Bhakti bus," the officer said.

The cement mixer stopped only after the Mayasari Bhakti bus hit a BMW sedan.

The 17 injured people were mostly on the second Mayasari Bhakti bus. They were rushed to UKI hospital for medical treatment.

A hospital nurse, Mintiarti, told the Jakarta Post yesterday, that all but three of those admitted had already been discharged.

"The injured were bus passengers, who mostly suffered head and feet injuries," she said. (emf)