One Person Killed, 38 Injured in Bogor Train Crash

JAKARTA LIFE'S STYLE. Human error is likely to be the main cause of a train collision near Jakarta that killed one person, a railway transportation chief said on Tuesday.

Tundjung Inderawan, director general of railways at the Transportation Ministry, said that the crash between two commuter trains in Bogor, West Java, on Tuesday morning was probably due to an error in judgment.

The Pakuan Express crashed into an economy-class train, both heading to Bogor from Jakarta, in Bogor’s Tanah Sereal Sub District. The Pakuan Express’ driver, Akbar, died after being stuck inside the locomotive for four hours.

Around 38 passengers were injured in the accident.

“Early indications show that the Pakuan Express had violated the signal and failed to pull the brake,” Tundjung said.

The ministry, he said, has sent three investigators to probe the accident. He said he would also warn the state operator PT KAI Commuter, because a similar accident occurred just a few months ago.

In June, an economy train heading from Bogor to Jakarta collided with a Depok Express train near South Jakarta’s Manggarai Station. A few days later, Tundjung conducted a spot inspection of a train maintenance center in Depok and found 10 locomotives did not undergo regular maintenance checks.

“Now if I need to, I will ground trains that are under-maintained,” he said.

A spokesman for PT Kereta Api’s Jakarta division, Sugeng Priyono, said that both trains were badly damaged and were being evacuated. Some of the passengers, he said, were transferred to another train heading to the same destination.

“No departures have been disturbed by the accident,” he said.

Bogor police officer Arifin said that the economy-class train had inexplicably stopped on the same track.

“We’re still investigating why the economy passenger train was stationary,” Arifin said. thejakartaglobe.com