Six killed, 55 injured in Tangerang bus accident

TANGERANG (JP): Six people were killed and 55 others were injured in a bus accident on the Jakarta-Merak highway near Cikokol, Tangerang on Sunday night.

Victims included the driver, 27-year-old Handoko, and a 10 year-old boy, Guntur, who died at the hospital.

A bus from Jakarta, packed with 60 passengers, wheeled out of control after its right front tire went flat around 10:30 p.m. on Sunday.

A survivor, Kuat, 29, said he saw the driver swing the wheel to the left as the bus was heading to the right.

The Tiga Putra bus, plying the Cirebon-Merak harbor route, West Java, then crashed into a shallow ditch on the left side of the road and turned on its side.

The front and left side of the bus were crushed and all exits were blocked. Four passengers and the driver, who was from Cirebon, were dead at the scene.

Locals and officers from City Land Transportation and Traffic Control Agency (DLLAJ) helped the victims to escape from the shattered windows on the right side of the bus.

Forty-four people sustained serious injuries while 11 others were only slightly injured.

The five killed were Sadi, 27, from Lampung; Miftah, 30, from Serang in West Java; Supriyatna, 40, a soldier; Sutinah, 43 from Kuningan, West Java, and the driver, Handoko, 27, from Cirebon. The bodies were taken to Tangerang General Hospital along with six survivors.

Nineteen victims were taken to Qadr Hospital in the Islamic Village of Kelapa Dua, Tangerang, while the rest were treated at the Siloam Gleneagle General Hospital in Lippo Karawaci, also Tangerang.

The chief of the Tangerang Traffic Control Sr.Ins. Pamuji said Handoko was actually a conductor. He said that the accident was being investigated. (41/07)