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