No safety bars at railway crossings

No safety bars at railway crossings

CIREBON, West Java: At least 167 railway crossing in Cirebon
regency have no safety bars, making the areas prone to train
accidents, a senior official at state railway operator PT Kereta
Api Indonesia (PT KAI) said on Friday.

Despite the concern, Suhartono, the spokesman of PT KAI's
Cirebon operation, said that the railway has no immediate plans
to address the problem as they are short of funds.

It cost PT KAI Rp 60 million (US$6,650) every year to
safeguard each railway crossing, and they could not cover such
costs.

All the company can do is to tell people to be careful when
near railway crossings, he said.

This last week two separate train accidents in Tegal and
Purworejo in Central Java have killed a total of 19 people. The
accidents happened when trains crashed into cars on railway
crossings that were not equipped with safety bars. -- JP