Nine killed in Cakung road accident

JAKARTA (JP): Nine people were killed and ten others injured in a collision between a bus and a truck on the Cakung-Cikunir tollway, East Jakarta, on Saturday night.

Not all of the victims could be identified, said sources at the Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital, Central Jakarta, where the victims' bodies were kept.

Five of them were male, the sources said. Sjafei, a worker at the hospital's morgue, was quoted by Kompas as saying that some of victims were dismembered.

Sources of the hospital said that, so far, none had been able to obtain the victims' identities. They speculated that this might have been because their families or next of kin were not yet aware of the accident.

The truck's driver, identified as FS, 34, was brought to the city police office for questioning while the bus' driver, Endang Suheri, died at the scene, sources at the Cakung police told Suara Pembaruan daily.

Jeffrey, 31, one of the survivors, said the accident happened when the truck, which was speeding to Cikampek, East Jakarta, tried to overtake another truck.

While doing this, however, the truck's driver failed to see the bus which was coming in the opposite direction.

After the accident, Jeffry said, the bus was still running for about 100 meters before it crashed into an iron fence, while the truck slipped into a grass land on the side of the tollway.

Most of the victims were sitting on the right side of the bus, he added. (arf)