JP/4/train

Nine die, 23 wounded as train smashes into bus

Apriadi Gunawan The Jakarta Post/Medan

In another train tragedy this year, at least nine people were killed and 23 others injured when a train slammed into a bus on a railroad crossing in Asahan regency, North Sumatra, early on Sunday.

Police said a preliminary probe showed that the crash occurred because the warning arms did not deploy as the Sri Bilah train passed an intersection in Kisaran Timur district, some 260 kilometers southeast of Medan, the capital of North Sumatra.

Witnesses told the police that the railroad attendant at the intersection was not around during the accident that took place at around 3 a.m.

"We are searching for the attendant who disappeared after the accident. There is the possibility of making this man a suspect," Asahan Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Mahfud Arifin said.

He said none of the fatalities, who were taken to the Kisaran general hospital along with the wounded victims, had been identified due the absence of their identity cards.

The nine bodies were all passengers of the ill-fated PO Pinem bus, he added.

"Most of the victims perished after being thrown out of the bus when the train rammed into the back," Mahfud said.

The business class passenger train left Medan at around 10:45 p.m. on Saturday to Rantau Prapat in Labuhan Batu regency.

Medan's train station deputy head Joharno said that despite the nine deaths with 23 passengers injured -- most very seriously -- the crash only caused minor damage to the train and that it would return to Medan on Sunday evening.

Nor did the accident seriously disrupt the departure and arrival schedules of other trains in or around Medan, he added.

Setiani Sinulingga, director of PO Pinem, which owns the bus, said the nine dead included one of the drivers, identified only as Budi, from Medan.

"All the fatalities were passengers in the rear of the bus. At the time, Budi was asleep along with them after he being relieved by his counterpart," Setiani said.

However, the number of the passengers aboard the 45-seat bus remained unclear.

Setiani said the bus was heading to Medan from Ujung Batu in Pekanbaru, Riau province.

"We are still waiting for a report from the bus terminal in Pekanbaru. But they could have picked up many passengers, who got on the bus at other stops, on its way to Medan. That's the difficulty for us in identifying the number of passengers," he added.

According to Setiani, relatives of the dead and wounded would receive compensation from state-owned insurance firm PT Jasa Raharja.

Rail accidents often occur in the country, with many blaming them largely on the mismanagement of state-owned train company PT Kereta Api Indonesia. The maintenance of the aging railway equipment and infrastructure, most of which was built by the Dutch colonial administration over 60 years ago, was also to blame.

On June 30, a passenger train slammed into another train in Rawa Bambu station in South Jakarta, killing at least five people and injuring dozens of others.

A week later, at least 25 passengers were hurt when their economy-class train collided with another train in Banjarsari subdistrict in South Sumatra.

In another recent accident, an Argo Bromo executive class train smashed into a pickup truck on June 2 in Cirebon, West Java, wounding three people in the car.

On May 20, a train accident in Bandarlampung, Lampung province, killed six people, with KAI officials blaming it on human error.