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)