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.