Three peole killed, 23 injured in late-night head-on bus collision
Three peole killed, 23 injured in late-night head-on bus collision
JAKARTA (JP): Two city buses, whose drivers were reportedly
drowsy, were involved in a head-on collision near the Pulogadung
industrial complex in East Jakarta early on Sunday morning.
Three passengers were killed and 23 others injured.
The two buses were identified by police as a Himpurna 94,
which plied the Pulogadung-Ciledug route and a Himpurna 64, which
ran the Pulogadung-Kalideres route. The two vehicles were
severely damaged.
Chief Sgt. Purnomo of the East Jakarta traffic police station
said the police had yet to come up with any clues to pinpoint the
cause of the crash. But he suspected that the accident, which
took place at 3 a.m., was likely caused by drivers' drowsiness.
"Very possibly one of the drivers was sleepy as... no other
vehicles were passing at the time of the incident," he said.
Both drivers were among the injured but police refused to
identify them or say if they had been arrested.
The three fatalities were identified as Ngatimin, 21, a
resident of Plumpung, Rawa Badak in North Jakarta; Suprapto, 21,
a resident of Kebon Sereh in East Jakarta and Mulyadi, 32, a
resident of Cikalong, Subang, in West Java.
Of the 23 injured passengers, eight were in a serious
condition, including a mother and her three-and-a-half-year-old
toddler, Agung Budianto.
All the injured were rushed to the emergency care units of
Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital in Central Jakarta and Islam
Hospital in East Jakarta.
Many of the injured suffered fractures of their legs and
backs.
Purnomo said the incident occurred shortly after the Himpurna
94 bus had left its pool in Klender without any passengers on
board. It collided with the full Himpurna 64 bus, which had just
left the bus terminal heading for Kalideres in West Jakarta.
Some witnesses said that the empty bus was traveling very fast
while the full one was moving slowly.
"I don't really know how the collision happened as I was far
from the front windshield. The only thing I knew was that the bus
I was on was not going that fast. It was early in the morning and
a lot of people were still busy finding their seats inside the
bus," Hasanudin, 28, a conductor on the Himpurna 64 bus, said.
Sophia, who sat behind the driver, recalled how the bus coming
from the opposite direction suddenly hit the windshield of her
bus. The driver screamed, "We're hit," she said.
Abdulrahman, an employee of Mayasari Bakti which runs the
Himpurna buses, said his company would be responsible for all the
expenses incurred at the hospitals.
"Two of our buses were severely damaged. Even so we still have
to pay for these passengers' hospital fees," he said. (emf)