Two die in traffic accident

JAKARTA (JP): Two people died and three others were badly injured in a multiple traffic accident on the Tanjung Priok- Cawang highway near Prumpung, East Jakarta in the early hours of Sunday.

The three survivors are still being treated in the emergency unit of the private Christian University (UKI) Hospital, while the wrecked vehicles have been taken to the East Jakarta police's traffic unit headquarters.

A highway official, identified as Eko, said the accident occurred when a jeep tried to overtake a pickup, which was carrying five passengers and was loaded with iron pipes.

The jeep driver, unaware of the presence of a truck in the right-hand lane in front of the pickup, veered left again but collided with the pickup, Eko explained.

He said both the jeep and the pickup then smashed into the rear of a truck before coming to a halt in the middle of the road.

Two passengers in the pickup, identified as Marsudin, 30, and Suprapto, 45, died instantly at the scene and their bodies were taken to the morgue of the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, while the injured victims were rushed to the UKI Hospital.

Badro, a relative of one of the victims, said all of the passengers in the pickup were working for a water pipe-laying project in Narogong, Bekasi, east of the capital.

He said that the two dead, who worked as laborers on the project, were on their way home to their rented house in the Cempaka Putih area of Central Jakarta.

"Both Marsudin and Suprapto will be buried in Wonogiri, their hometown," said Badro. (ylt)