Slipups, carelessness behind tragedies

Slipups, carelessness behind tragedies

JAKARTA (JP): The past year may not be called an accident
prone year, but it has had more than its share of tragedies on
the ground, at sea and in the air. Unfortunately, too many lives
were lost as a result of negligence and human error.

Jan. 25

Seven people were killed and 20 injured when a bus crashed
into a stalled dump truck on a highway connecting Buton and
Pekanbaru, Riau. The bus was badly damaged, suggesting it was
speeding at the time of the accident.

Jan. 28

Eight died and another 22 were seriously injured in a five-
vehicle pileup on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road. The collision
started when an intercity bus lost control in the lane heading to
Cikampek and ended up in the lane heading to Jakarta.

March 23

Ten people were killed and 13 others injured after a passenger
bus collided with a truck. The accident occurred in Kampar
district, Riau in the afternoon when the speeding bus slammed
into the truck which was traveling in the opposite direction.

March 30

An open truck packed with supporters of a local volleyball
team overturned in Mambak village, Mlonggo district, Central
Java, killing seven and injuring 46. The bus was speeding to a
match in nearby Bantrung village when the driver lost control as
he tried to dodge a van coming from the opposite direction. All
but one of the dead were teenagers.

April 10

Nine passengers were killed and seven others seriously injured
when a speeding 12-seater van burst into flames on the Cikampek
toll road, West Java. The fire was put out in about 20 minutes
and the car did not explode. All passengers were going to a
wedding in Babakan, Kuningan, Cirebon. They had left Jakarta from
Pancoran, South Jakarta. Among the dead was a two-year-old child.

April 19

A Merpati Nusantara airplane carrying 48 passengers and five
crew members crashed on Belitung Island, killing 15 people.

The Advanced Turbo Prop aircraft crashed into a oil palm
plantation about six kilometers from Bulu Tumbang Airport in
Belitung's main city of Tanjung Pandan. Witnesses said most of
the fatalities occurred from conflagration. The plane broke into
three pieces upon impact.

May 3

In Majalengka, West Java, nine people died and eight were
seriously injured when a Sahabat intercity bus with five
passengers aboard crashed head-on with a minibus carrying 22
passengers. Three infants were among the dead.

May 22

All six people aboard a CN-235 aircraft were killed when it
crashed during a Low Altitude Parachute Extraction System test at
the Gorda Airbase in Serang, West Java.

June 15

Seven people died and two were injured when their truck
plunged into a river in Demak, Central Java. The truck, with 50
passengers aboard, went out of control going down a hill and
skidded into the muddy river while it was traveling from Demak to
the nearby town of Purwodadi.

July 12

The ferry MV Sentosa 10 carrying 92 passengers went down after
leaving Batam Island's Telaga Punggur Harbor for Bintan's Tanjung
Pinang. Twelve people drowned.

July 13

An overloaded ferry sank in Lake Toba, North Tapanuli, North
Sumatra. Seventy-seven bodies were found, but the true number of
dead still remains a mystery. The ferry's capacity was only 60
passengers but officials believe up to 200 may have been aboard.

The MV Peldatari I was sailing from Parapat to Tomok, a town
on Samosir Island in the middle of Lake Toba. The boat was
carrying Tomok residents who were returning after a cultural
festival in Parapat.

July 17

A Trigana Air Service Fokker-27 airplane leased by Sempati Air
crashed five minutes after take-off from Husein Sastranegara
Airport in Bandung, West Java.

Twenty-nine people were killed.

Sept. 14

Thirty-two people were killed and 29 others injured when an
intercity bus collided head-on with a dump truck on the Cakung-
Cikunir toll road in East Jakarta. Most of the dead were believed
to be passengers on board the Semarang-registered Jaya Bakti
Super bus which was traveling from Jakarta to Purwodadi in
Central Java. Thirty-one died on impact.

Sept. 26

A Garuda Indonesia Airbus-300-B4 airplane crashed shortly
before landing at Polonia Airport, Medan, North Sumatra, killing
all 234 on board.

The cause of one of the country's worst airline accidents has
not been determined. Investigators are still examining the
airplane's black box.

Oct. 7

A truck carrying dozens of people plunged into a 25-meter deep
ravine in the East Timor district of Ermera in the afternoon.
Seventeen people died and dozens were injured.

Oct. 19

Twenty-eight people died when a ferry boat collided with a
tugboat towing a coal barge on the Barito River in Central
Kalimantan.

Visibility of less than five meters due to the haze from
forest fires was said to be one of the causes. But the boat,
which was two meters wide and 13 meters long, was also considered
too small to be carrying 65 passengers.

Nov. 4

A fully loaded interisland bus collided with a speeding train
in Kota Bumi, North Lampung, killing 25 people.

The collision occurred at a precarious crossing which was also
the sight of a similar crash two years earlier which claimed 35
lives.

On the same day in Beusa village, East Aceh, 10 died when an
intercity bus collided head-on with a truck carrying pine logs.

Witnesses said the bus was heading toward North Sumatra when
it hit the truck which was traveling in the opposite direction.
The truck's load of logs rolled onto the bus when the vehicles
collided.

Nov. 14

A boat carrying 40 Indonesian workers returning from Penang,
Malaysia sank after being hit by strong waves in the Strait of
Malacca off Belawan port, North Sumatra. The boat was heading to
Tanjung Balai and Belawan. Eighteen people were rescued by local
fishermen. All the workers were believed to come from Central
Java and Aceh.

Nov. 24

Seven people died when a passenger bus collided with a truck
on Pamanukan road, Sukasari village, Subang regency, West Java.

Police said the bus, headed toward Cikampek at great speed,
tried to overtake another vehicle and hit the truck, loaded with
sand, coming from the opposite direction.

Dec. 8

Fire gutted the top four floors of one of Bank Indonesia's new
25-story twin towers in Central Jakarta, killing 15 people.

Nine of the victims suffocated to death in elevators while the
others burned to death. City police are still investigating the
case, but the lack of an adequately installed fire fighting
system in the building is believed to be the cause.

Dec. 19

A SilkAir Boeing 737-300 went down in the estuary of a river,
north of Palembang, North Sumatra. All 104 on board were killed.

The cause of the crash is still under investigation but
witnesses claim they saw the plane explode in midair. (09/mds)