Six killed, 55 injured in Tangerang bus accident

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)