Locomotive Without Driver Rolls 17 Kilometers, Smashes Homes
By Camelia Pasandaran on 4:01 pm April 30, 2013.
Authorities are baffled after a driverless locomotive near Semarang, Central Java, traveled 17 kilometers in just 15 minutes before derailing and damaging nearby houses.
“The National Commission on Transportation Safety has investigated it,” Bambang Ervan, a spokesman of the Ministry of Transportation, told the Jakarta Globe on Tuesday. “The inspector general of the [state railway] company Kereta Api has also investigated it. The government is still waiting for the results of the investigation.”
The locomotive, owned by KAI, on Sunday traveled at an average speed of 68 kilometers per hour without crew or a driver present, and later derailed and smashed into a few nearby homes. There were no injuries reported.
Tempo.co reported that an officer started the locomotive early on Sunday to perform a check on it, but it suddenly started traveling west, heading toward Jakarta. It was moving too quickly for the officers to chase it down.
Surono, a spokesman of KAI’s Semarang office, said that the officers handled the case well.
“The officers cleared the railway [of other trains] by coordinating [with nearby stations] to prevent an unwanted disaster,” Surono said as quoted by Tempo. “We intentionally directed the locomotive to a safe track so it wouldn’t disturb.”
He alleged that the locomotive started to roll because it was on a descending track.
Bambang denied rumors that a “ghost” was involved in the case and that investigations would likely show a technical cause or human error for the mishap.
“Temporary investigation shows that it was a procedural mistake of the officer that made the locomotive moving itself,” Surono said.
Jakarta Globe
di 30 apr 2013 - 15:34