Toll inferno bus driver's trial starts in Bogor

BOGOR, West Java (JP): The trial of an inter-city bus driver involved in an accident which killed 31 people on March 23 began yesterday at the Bogor District Court.

The defendant Ag. bin Yakob drove the privately owned Kramatdjati inter-city bus which crashed into three vehicles and then caught fire.

Judge Usman Wahab chaired the 45-minute trial on the Jagorawi toll road accident.

The session heard charges by prosecutors Razali Hanafi and Yono Salim, and a statement by the defendant's lawyers.

Razali said the defendant faces 15 years in prison for deliberately causing the death of 31 people, mostly his passengers, and serious injury to others.

Prosecutors said he swallowed barbiturates before driving from the Kampung Rambutan terminal.

The defendant continuously drove in zig-zags almost crashing into a truck before the accident, they said.

They said the toll road was full at the time, and the defendant repeatedly sped past vehicles on road's shoulder.

The defendant ignored repeated warnings from his conductor, Ade Sofyan bin Jubaidi, to drive carefully before the bus crashed into three vehicles parked on the roadside while attempting to overtake another vehicle.

The crash occurred on kilometer 37 A of the toll road in the Cikuda hamlet of Bojong Nangka village in Gunung Putri district.

The defendant "only tried to save himself and did not make efforts to push the button of the hydro-powered front and back doors to save his passengers," prosecutors said.

After making his exit the defendant stood by and watched passengers trying to save themselves from the fire without giving assistance, they said.

The defendant's lawyers from GM Associates Legal Consultants said the plenary session should annul the prosecution.

Monang Saragih, one of the lawyers, said the charges contain mistakes including the defendant's birth date.

The defendant was born on June 21, 1957 while the prosecution is saying it was July 21, said the defendant's lawyers.

Their defense also rested on the prosecutions failure to relate the accident to violations of the 1992 Transportation Law and the Law on Prohibited Drugs.

The prosecution is thus inaccurate, the lawyers said.

The bus conductor, Ade Sofyan, also attended the trial. He told The Jakarta Post he had returned to his village in Majalengka, West Java, to resume farming since the accident.

"I have had enough (kapok)," he said. (21/anr)