Technical problems led to most of the train accidents this year

JAKARTA (JP): The country has witnessed 106 train accidents in the first 10 months of this year, a senior official at the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications said on Wednesday.

Kalalo Nugroho, head of the ministry's public relation and overseas cooperation, said most of the accidents were due to technical problems. The accidents included 11 collisions between two speeding trains, 20 accidents with other vehicles and more than 20 cases of derailment.

Four accidents were caused by natural disasters, such as flood and landslide, while 19 others by "other factors", he was quoted as saying by Antara.

Kalalo did not explain the causes of the remaining accidents.

According to him, 37 percent of the 106 accidents were caused by technical problems, 27 by human error, 32 percent by "external parties" and 4 percent by natural disasters.

Last year, train accidents across the country totaled 196, the biggest record in a single year in the past few years. The number reached 109 cases in 1998.

In an effort to reduce the number of accidents, Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications Agum Gumelar has instructed the firm's top management to pay serious attention to the welfare of railway employees.

State PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) plans to introduce a special "day of alert" among its staff and all train drivers will undergo health checks prior to the start of their shifts.

In January this year, at least 12 people, mostly teenagers, died instantly and at least 10 others were injured when the diesel powered Bogor-Sukabumi train they were riding on top of passed under a bridge in the Paledang subdistrict of Central Bogor.

Witnesses said a group of teenagers were sitting on the train roof unaware of the approaching bridge.

In early May, a speeding train on the Jakarta-Merak line collided head-on with another train on a single-line track at the Bumi Serpong Damai (BSD) housing complex, killing four passengers and injuring 37 others.

One of the fatalities, identified as becak (pedicab) driver Sumarno, 35, was decapitated when he was caught between the colliding trains. (bsr)