Six killed as train derails in Kebumen
Six killed as train derails in Kebumen
The Jakarta Post, Kebumen/Yogyakarta/Cirebon
A train packed with travelers returning to Jakarta after
celebrating Idul Fitri in their hometowns skid off the tracks
after hitting a truck in the Central Java town of Kebumen,
killing six people and injuring 29.
Railway officials said on Tuesday the Dwipangga express was
traveling from the Central Java town of Solo to Jakarta late
Monday when it hit a box truck that was caught on a bridge across
the tracks and derailed, with the locomotive and eight of its 11
carriages plowing into rice fields at Tersobo village in Prembun
subdistrict.
"While the truck had not yet finished crossing the tracks, the
Dwipangga came along and crashed into it, causing the train to
derail," Rasiman, a railway official in Kebumen, told The Jakarta
Post.
Kebumen Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Prasta Wahyu Hidayat said
his personnel had arrested the truck driver, Ahmad Saefuddin, for
questioning.
Hidayat said a traffic sign is installed on the bridge that
prohibits any vehicle over a height of 2.4 meters from passing
through it, but the driver of the truck, which was 2.6 meters
tall, appeared to have ignored the sign.
The accident crippled the main line on the southern coast of
Java, which serves the Surabaya-Jakarta route passing through
Yogyakarta, Kebumen, Kroya and Purwokerto, but it is expected
that the track would be cleared by Wednesday.
Zainal Abidin, spokesman for state-owned railway company PT
Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI), said on Tuesday the departures of at
least 10 trains from Jakarta to Surabaya had to be canceled due
to the crash.
The company would refund the price of all tickets bought by
passengers who have suffered from the sudden cancellations at a
number of train stations, he added.
The accident also delayed the arrivals of trains traveling on
Java's southern coast railroad for five to 11 hours as they were
rerouted to the northern coast line.
Sudarsono, a railway official in Surabaya, said at least five
trains, including the Gajayana, Mutiara Selatan and Turangga, had
to be rerouted to the East Java city of Malang from Jakarta,
arriving hours later than their scheduled arrival times.
"Turangga was scheduled to arrive at 7:15 a.m. but arrived at
5 p.m., or 10 hours late, while Mutiara Selatan should have
arrived at 6:36 a.m. but it came at 5:30 p.m., or 11 hours late,"
he added.
The crash also caused traffic jams along the roads leading to
and from Kebumen as hundreds of people crowded the scene, which
is adjacent to the Kebumen-Purworejo highway. The traffic jam was
particularly heavy on streets stretching east from the town of
Kutoarjo to the crash site, about 10 kilometers away.
The dead and the wounded were taken to public hospitals in
Kebumen and in the neighboring town of Purworejo. Only three of
the casualties have been identified so far -- Bambang Supriyanto,
36, Aryono, 40, and Hendri Pangarimanan, 25.
Central Java governor Mardiyanto and Central Java police chief
Insp. Gen. Didi Widayadi visited the scene and expressed their
condolences and sympathy to the victims.
In a similar accident, three people were killed when a
Kertajaya train serving the Jakarta-Surabaya route hit their
motorcycle on Tuesday at Astanamukti village in Cirebon, West
Java.
The crash killed Abdurahman, 35, his wife Tuti Alfiah, 34, and
their son Hafid, 5, when the train hit their motorcycle while
they were crossing the railroad.
"The victims died instantly at the scene. Their remains have
been taken to Gunung Jati Hospital in Cirebon," Cirebon police
chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Musyafak said.
Fatal crashes are common on Indonesia's poorly maintained
railways. Carriages are often overcrowded and signaling systems
prone to breaking down. On Dec. 25 last year, 30 people died in a
train crash in Java.
The country is in the middle of its high season for travel,
with people crisscrossing cities to attend family reunions to
celebrate the end of the holy Islamic fasting month of Ramadhan.