Tollway tragedy claims 31 lives
Tollway tragedy claims 31 lives
By K. Basrie
BOGOR, West Java (JP): Thirty-one people were killed and
dozens others injured when a speeding bus turned into an inferno
after smashing into three cars at the Jagorawi turnpike, some 40
kilometers south of Jakarta yesterday morning. The bus was
heading for Bandung from Jakarta.
Twenty-nine of the 31 victims, who were passengers of the air-
conditioned Kramatdjati bus, were burned beyond recognition.
Morgue employees at the Indonesian Red Cross hospital in
Bogor, where all the dead victims were examined, told The Jakarta
Post that there were 29 bodies, including two children, 20 women
and seven men, from the bus.
The charred body of a mother tightly clasped her baby on her
lap.
Two other victims, including a policewoman, were passengers of
two of the three cars carrying families of Jakarta police
detectives who were on the way to Puncak resort for a party.
The three cars of police and their families had stopped on the
left-hand side of the highway because one of the cars had broken
down.
The speeding Mercedez-Benz bus, which was carrying
approximately 40 passengers, hit the cars from behind.
"I can't believe the cars of the police families stopped at
such a place on the highway where nobody is allowed to stop,"
commented a Jasa Marga officer.
Local police, highway operators and eyewitnesses said that the
bus driver, whose identity is presently being withheld, was
possibly intoxicated.
"He could not even stand or walk properly when we brought him
in for questioning," an officer of the Jasa Marga highway
operator company told the Post at the company's site office next
to the Ciawi tollgate.
Ade Sofyan, 27, one of the bus passengers who suffered slight
injuries, said that the driver had driven quite fast since
leaving Jakarta.
"I myself reminded him many times to reduce speed," Ade, a
staffer at the ruling Golkar office in Central Jakarta, said at
the Red Cross hospital here.
Also killed in the accident was Ade's girlfriend, Irna
Marliana, 29, a teacher at Sukatani junior high school in Bekasi.
Police sources said that the driver along with his conductor,
who also survived the accident, are being interrogated at the
Bogor police office.
According to eyewitnesses, police and highway operators, the
accident took place at around 10:30 a.m. at the so-called KM 37
spot between Cimanggis and Gunung Puteri.
The fire is believed to have been started when sparks caused
by the collision ignited gasoline which leaked from the tank of
one the cars.
Most of the bus passengers failed to escape the inferno
because the automatic doors of the bus could not be opened while
the ignition was off.
"The doors could only be opened after some of us strenuously
kicked them and the fire was growing intense," Ade said. "The
driver could, of course, escape easily because he could easily
get out from the exit door next to him," he said.
Based on police preliminary data, most of the passengers who
managed to escape, less than 10, were men.
"I failed to get my girlfriend, Irna, out as I saw she was
trapped by the crowd," said Ade in tears.
It is still unknown whether the bus was equipped with fire
extinguishers.
The following list are some of the names and addresses of the
burned victims on the bus based on the available identity cards
collected by the police and Jasa Marga officers:
1. Rizalina, 46, resident of Pondok Aren, Tangerang.
2. Netty Magdalena, 21, unknown.
3. Rifatin, 22, resident of Jombang, East Java.
4. Sri Suparyati, 22, Kebon Jeruk, West Jakarta.
5. Dede Kurniawati, 27, Lengkong, Bandung, West Java.
6. Mulia Harkat S., 27, Lengkong, Bandung, West Java.
7. Lya Linda, South Pontianak, West Kalimantan.
8. Bealuktja, 27, Pesanggrahan, South Jakarta.
9. Aminah, alias Aicay, South Pontianak, West Kalimantan.
10. Dede Kurniati, Bandung.
11. Dr. Mawardi Projo, Grogol, West Jakarta.
12. Sindag, Tegal, Central Java.
13. Susilowati, Bintaraja village, Bekasi.
14. Risma Pangaribuan, Depok.
15. Maulidah, Kalibata, South Jakarta.
16. Irna Marliana, 29, Cianjur.
17. Vinolia Pakpahan, Cipete Utara, South Jakarta.
18. Andri Domang, an employee of the Moslem Bank Muamalat,
Jakarta.
19. Osrianika Printayan, resident of Bekasi.
20. Dedi Kurniadi, unknown.
The identities of the other nine victims are as yet unknown.
The two victims from the cars on the side of the road were
identified as policewoman Chief Sergeant Tribudi and wife of
police detective Suyoto.
Some of the injured victims were taken to hospitals in
Jakarta.
A similar accident took place on March 5 in Tangerang, 35
kilometers west of Jakarta, when an overloaded bus overturned
and exploded on the Merak-Jakarta highway. Six people were burned
beyond recognition, including a child, and 37 were injured. The
driver died in the accident.
In March 1994, 33 people were killed and dozen others
seriously injured when a speeding Metromini bus plunged into a
polluted river in North Jakarta.
The driver was convicted of negligence causing death.