Twelve die in car collision in North Sumatra

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

Twelve people are dead and seven others were severely injured after a passenger bus and a minivan collided in North Sumatra, police said on Friday.

The crash, involving a Garuda bus and a minivan belonging to CV Dirgantara, took place on Thursday on the trans-Sumatra highway connecting Medan and Tebing Tinggi, some 46 kilometers east of the provincial capital of Medan.

It was believed that the minivan was overloaded with passengers and traveling at high speed.

Killed in the accident were the minivan's driver, Beni Harianja, 23, who died instantly, and his 11 passengers. The dead were identified as Zulkarnaen, 32, Taufik Hidayat, 32, Faisal, 25, Ari Antari, 3, Masiem, 35, Tasminas alias Galuh, 60, Asludin, 41, Maisarah, 42, Binsar Siregar, Apriliana, 4, and Beta Sihombing. All were residents from Serdang Bedagai and Tebing Tinggi.

The seven injured were in intensive care at Melati Hospital and Trianda Hospital in Perbaungan. All five passengers on board the bus survived the accident.

Police were searching for the bus driver who fled the scene after the crash.

Deli Serdang Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Machfud Arifin said the fatal collision could have been avoided if the minivan driver had lowered his speed and had not overloaded his vehicle.

"Such a small vehicle with a capacity of only 14 passengers was jammed with 21 people, so it became unstable," he said.

He said the driver failed to control the speeding minivan when it clipped the back of the oncoming bus.

According to a witness Ani, 39, the minivan apparently lost control near the Sei Jenggi village, Perbaungan in the Serdang Bedagai regency when driving from the direction of Tebing Tinggi, meeting the bus.

"Suddenly, the front of the minivan hit the back of the bus and the driver lost control, the minivan rolling over three times. Meanwhile, the Garuda bus hit a tree on the street side," she said.

Machfud said the police had recovered the vehicles as evidence in their investigation.

"The accident is a lesson for all (minivan) drivers to always check the stability of their vehicles." Drivers should be focussed on protecting the lives of their passengers, not just on making money, he said.

Sahril Irwansyah Rosa, a spokesman for CV Dirgantara, said his company would compensate the families of those killed and injured in the accident.

"We will coordinate with the shareholders of CV Dirgantara to make donations to the victims' families," he said.

On Dec. 16, 2003, five people were killed and dozens of others injured when a bus crashed into a tree in Situbondo regency, East Java, after managing to avoid a collision with a minivan coming from the opposite direction.

Two other crashes killed at least 14 people on Nov. 21 as Indonesian Muslims were preparing to observe the Idul Fitri holidays. Ten people were killed in a road accident in the East Java district of Paiton, while the other four died in another accident in South Lampung, Lampung province.

Last October, in Situbondo, 55 people were killed in a three- vehicle pile-up when a trailer truck hit a bus on a steep slope in the Banyu Glugur area and the bus was rammed from behind by a minivan. The fuel tank of the truck burst into flames engulfing all three vehicles.

Road accidents claim an average of 27 fatalities a day in Indonesia. According to data collected by the National Police Traffic Directorate, a total of 9,856 people died in 13,399 road accidents last year.