Road accidents claim 14 lives
Road accidents claim 14 lives
ID Nugroho and Oyos Saroso, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya, Bandarlampung
At least 14 people died in road accident on Friday, as most
Indonesian Muslims were preparing to observe the Idul Fitri
holidays next week.
Ten people were killed in a road accident in the East Java
district of Paiton, while the other four died in another accident
in South Lampung regency, Lampung province.
Brig. Wayan, a police officer at the Paiton police
subprecinct, said the tragic accident in Paiton began as a tanker
truck was heading south west toward Surabaya, from Probolinggo
regency in Friday morning.
Suddenly, a minibus was seen overtaking two horse-drawn carts
from the opposite direction. The minibus was apparently going
too fast to stop, according to the police officer.
As a result, 10 people were killed and 17 others were badly
injured in the accident, said Agus, a paramedic at the Kraksaan
Hospital Emergency Unit.
Four people died instantly in the accident, while six others
died on the way to Kraksaan hospital. It was not clear whether
all the victims were the passengers of the minibus, which was
overloaded with 24 fishermen.
The injured people were admitted to Kraksaan Hospital in
Probolinggo for further medical treatment. The accident, which
occurred in Jabung Sisir subdistrict, then caused a severe
traffic jam in the area.
The accident happened just a month after another tragic
accident took place in the nearby area of Banyu Glugur, located
in neighboring Situbondo regency.
The accident killed 55 people, mostly school girls from
Yapemda senior high school in Sleman regency, Yogyakarta.
Separately, four people died instantly and another 19 people
were injured after a loaded bus crashed into a container truck in
Candimas subdistrict in South Lampung.
All the victims were bus passengers, who were employees at a
private company based in Lippo Cikarang, Bekasi returning to East
Lampung for the annual Idul Fitri holidays.
The four people that died in the accident were Wahyudi, 32,
Sutiono, 28, Siti Astiah, 24 and Ningsih, 23, all residents of
East Lampung.
Meanwhile, the 19 injured were being treated at Ummul Thoif
Islamic Hospital in South Lampung and Abdul Moeloek hospital in
Bandar Lampung.
Chief of South Lampung police subprecinct Adj. Sr. Comr. Budi
Santoso said that the accident began when the bus tried to pass
another vehicle in Candimas subdistrict.
The bus was trying to overtake a truck, but another truck was
coming in the opposite direction, and the result was head-on
collision.
Budi said that the police were still looking for the bus
driver, who fled the scene after the accident.