Train rams into truck loaded with gas cylinders, stranding passengers

Agus Maryono and Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Purwokerto, Indramayu

A train rammed the back of a truck loaded with gas cylinders at a railway crossing in the Central Java town of Purwokerto on Thursday.

No one was injured in the accident and none of the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders exploded.

Some 600 passengers on the Fajar Utama train, which serves the Jakarta-Yogyakarta route, had to wait for five hours before they could continue their journey.

The accident damaged both the truck and the locomotive, which had to be replaced.

Spokesman for train operator PT KAI in Purwokerto, Supriyadi blamed the accident on the truck driver, Saridi, who is now in police custody.

Supriyadi said the driver ignored the railway crossing barrier, which was being lowered at the time, even though the train was already close.

He added that KAI would sue PT Asri Bumi Purbalingga, the LPG supplier that owned the truck.

Separately, two were killed in Indramayu regency when a speeding oil tanker hit a motorcycle as the tanker was trying to avoid motorcycle on Java's accident-prone north coast route.

The driver of the motorcycle, Kadis bin Samsi (40), and passenger Ibrahim (40), died instantly.

Heading to Jakarta from Cirebon, the truck veered suddenly to the right when its driver, Warsap, saw a motorcycle trying to overtake him on the left.

"But at the same time and from the opposite direction, there was a Honda Astrea Supra motorcycle with two people riding it coming along," said Indramayu traffic police chief Adj. Comr. Suhadi.

Police have detained the 50-year-old truck driver.

Accidents are a regular feature of the north coast route, which connects industrial centers in West Java with markets in Central and East Java.