KAI blames bus driver for fatal accident

PURWOKERTO, Central Java (JP): Preliminary investigations indicate that the railroad crossing attendant was not to blame for a fatal crash involving the Empu Jaya train and a Sinar Jaya bus which killed 13 people on Wednesday, a railroad official has said.

Spokesman for the Purwokerto unit of the state railroad company (PT KAI) Arifat told The Jakarta Post on Thursday that the bus kept on going even though the automatic crossing bar was coming down at the time.

"The accident did not occur because the attendant was asleep," he said, claiming he had witnesses who could testify to that effect in court.

The bus, reportedly carrying 40 passengers, kept going straight through the crossing on the heels of a truck which had moved off seconds before.

"Witnesses said that the truck then stopped and reversed as the bar had caught on it. This was when the bus went through," Arifat said, quoting witnesses.

Thirteen people, including the bus driver, Darsono, were killed when the bus, which was en route from Jakarta to Purwokerto, was hit by the Empu Jaya train on the Purwokerto - Jakarta line at a railroad crossing close to the Kemisik river in the village of Pakulaut, Tegal regency, some 165 kilometers west of the Central Java capital Semarang, in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, police were sticking by their allegation that the fatal accident was the fault of crossing attendant Slamet Sahroni.

The survivors are still being treated at Tegal General Hospital.

"We are continuing our questioning of Slamet. If he is found responsible, he will be prosecuted. PT KAI has its witnesses and we have our own witnesses who say that Slamet was asleep when the accident took place," Tegal Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Lutfi Lubihanto said. (45/sur)