Railway paralyzed after train derails
Railway paralyzed after train derails
Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Indramayu
Java's northern track was paralyzed for at least six hours on
Friday when business train KA Fajar Utama 122 plying the Jakarta-
Semarang route derailed at 9:25 a.m. in Gabuswetan district,
Indramayu regency, West Java.
Six economy trains departing from Jakarta were forced to stop
at minor stations, while executive trains KA Argo Lawu and KA
Argo Anggrek were redirected to the southern track via Bandung,
West Java.
No fatalities were reported, and authorities are still
investigating the cause of the accident.
An employee of the Cirebon railway station said KA Fajar Utama
122 departed from Jakarta at 6:00 a.m., and ran normally until it
arrived at the Kedokan Gabus railway station.
When the train was about to leave the station at a speed of 40
kilometers per hour, the wheels slipped and the train derailed.
The passengers got out of the train cars as soon as the train
stopped. Several passengers expressed their disappointment over
the incident.
"I have to reach Semarang quickly to attend my nephew's
wedding," said Suharmono, 49.
Mrs. Sugiri, 45, said that she hit her head during the
accident and recalled that many women were crying when the train
began to derail. Many of them also jumped out to save themselves.
The accident disrupted the railway system, as seven of KA
Fajar Utama's 12 cars derailed and blocked both tracks of the
railway.
The spokesman of state-run railway company PT KAI Cirebon,
Suhartono, said his office had canceled the departures of two KA
Cirebon Ekspres trains following the accident.
The two trains were eventually used to transport the 450
passengers of the derailed train to Semarang, Central Java.
The derailed cars were back on the tracks by 3:20 p.m. "Our
field staff are working on the railway to make it safe for the
trains," Suhartono said.
As to the cause of the accident, he said authorities were
still investigating. He added that the material losses of the
accident were being assessed, because they needed to cross-check
the data with Jakarta, Bandung in West Java and Semarang.
Meanwhile, operations officer Mulyadi said there were four
possible factors that may have caused the accident -- human,
mechanical, electrical and geographical.
Mulyadi said the geographical factor did not play a role in
the accident, given the fact that the track was built on very
stable ground. "It takes time to uncover the cause of an
accident," he added.