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.