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.