Sleepy driver kills 2 bajaj drivers

JAKARTA (JP): A sedan reportedly belonging to a police brigadier general crashed into a food stall and killed two bajaj (three-wheeled motorized pedicab) drivers on Jl. Martimbang in Kebayoran Baru, South Jakarta, on Friday.

The two victims were identified as Sanusi, 47, and Tarjo, 48. They died instantly at the scene.

Two other pedicab drivers were wounded. They were identified as Syahroni, 37, and Muhidin, 33, and are being treated at Pertamina Hospital.

A witness, Suwarno, told reporters the pedicab drivers were sitting in a food stall in the area at about 7 a.m., waiting for passengers, when a gray Toyota Corrola sedan, with license plate "B 352 SF", passed the road heading east.

He said the speeding sedan then careened into the two parked pedicabs and smashed into the stall, where the pedicab drivers were chatting.

"I only realized later when it was over. The stall was upside down and my friends were wounded," Suwarno recalled.

A source at the National Police identified the car with that license plate as belonging to a brigadier general.

The general was not in the car. However, Djaja, a member of the general's staff, was in the car with the driver.

"The driver admitted to feeling sleepy, as he had just escorted the police officer to Soekarno-Hatta airport early in the morning," the source said.

The two fatalities were taken to state-owned Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta for postmortem examinations. (emf)