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.