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)