The Jakarta Globe, March 9 2014,
Jakarta. Nine children remained in hospital on Sunday after a train rammed into the back of a bus carrying dozens of orphans at a reportedly congested railroad crossing in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, on Saturday morning.
The four severely wounded victims and five others who sustained light injuries were receiving treatment at three different hospitals in the West Java city of Bekasi, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said on Sunday.
“Severely-injured victims Bagaskara, Asmaul Husna and Rifky are at Sentra Medika Hospital,” Rikwanto said. “Another heavily-injured victim, Nia Ramadani, is being treated at Adam Talib Hospital.”
Bus PO Haryanto was carrying more than 30 children from an orphanage in Cibitung, Bekasi, to attend a charity event in Jakarta at around 8 a.m. on Saturday, when it ran through a railroad crossing not far from the orphanage in Wanasari village.
Bekasi Police chief Sr. Comr. Isnaeni Ujiarto said one of the metal crossing barriers failed to function, and officers manually attempted to close the crossing using a makeshift wooden barrier.
The bus driver allegedly drove the bus through the crossing while the barriers were closing, but was unable to cross safely to the other side of the railway due to traffic congestion.
“The bus already crossed the railway, but it was met with traffic congestion, forcing [the driver] to abruptly drive the bus backward,” Isnaeni told Indonesian news portal tempo.co. “So the back of the bus was hit [by the train].”
The train was heading to Semarang from Jakarta.
More than 20 of the children were rushed to hospital shortly after the accident. Around half had been discharged by Sunday.
Police were still searching fir the driver, who fled the scene after the incident.
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zo 9 maa 2014 - 20:50