Workers mourn friends killed in overpass collapse
Workers mourn friends killed in overpass collapse
JAKARTA (JP): Today is payday for workers on the Grogol overpass in West Jakarta. A group of men had planned to go home to the Cikampek district in Karawang just for a day, to congratulate their newly-marrieded friend, Sunjaya.
But after the marriage on Tuesday the groom, who turned 21 on March 12, showed up for work yesterday morning.
Hours later he plunged 10 meters to his death from the scaffold he was working on with another laborer Agus. Agus is still in hospital with four others.
Late yesterday other workers said Sunjaya's new brother-in-law Cali was still unconscious at the workers' makeshift tent near the Grogol overpass project.
"How is he going to tell his sister? She'll collapse, too," wondered one of the workers, Darsa.
"But the family will know from TV tonight anyway," another worker said at the Sumber Waras hospital.
"We can stay the night here to watch them, can't we?" a worker asked.
At the hospital morgue located near the accident site, the friends took one last look at Sunjaya, relieved that at least he was in one piece. A few called his name quietly but no tears were shed, and then they gently folded the blood-spattered sheet over his head.
Udin, a representative of the contractor, sighed heavily and prayed before the body.
The workers have not decided yet who would accompany Cali to take his dead brother home to Babakan Kenaren hamlet near Parakan Mulya village, Cikampek.
A few hopped into an ambulance which took the body to the Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital for an autopsy.
The others waited for news of two or three other friends still burried under the mound of rubble. One of the victims was heard crying for help until around 11:30, two hours after the structure and scaffold caved in and collapsed.
In their Sundanese dialect, the workers, clad in dirty working clothes and boots, tried frantically to determine who the victims were.
"It's Wandi and that other boy, do you know him? Is it Saman?," said Darsa.
Even though all are from the Cikampek district, the workers said these victims were new boys whom they were not familiar with yet.
The rest of the 20 or 21 victims -- depending on whether two or three were in the mound -- were released from Sumber Waras hospital after being treated for various injuries.
"I have to go back to the doctor on Monday," said one victim, Tahri, whose head and arm were injured.
Tahri and his father waited for the company car, Hun Do Bumi Karsa Jo, to take them to Cikampek, at least three hours away.
"The management said they will be responsible and pay for everything until all the victims are well," said Tahri's father, his eyes still red from crying.
They both had no idea whether they were insured.
Slamet, 60, said he was working at another part of the project when he heard the news.
Although far, it was best to take Tahri home, he said, where conditions are better than at the workers' residence.
"At least we have a real mattress and pillow at home," he said.
Udin said the contractor's management have not yet decided whether the 12 injured workers can be treated for check-ups at a hospital nearer to Cikampek. (anr)