One dead, four missing after bridge collapses in Bone

The Jakarta Post, Makassar, Sun, January 20 2013,


A car carrying eight people plunged into the Pattirodeceng River after a bridge collapsed in Bone, South Sulawesi, on Saturday night.

As of Sunday, the Search and Rescue (SAR) team reported one dead and three rescued. Four remain missing.

The identity of the deceased individual was announced as Santi, 35, the missing victims were identified as Muhlis, 32, Aisyah, 3, Ai, 4, and Ilham, 1. The car was found near the location of the incident.

According to the SAR team, the missing victims might be still be in the vicinity because the river’s current is slow but it's efforts were marred by the sheer depth of the 20-meter deep river.

Head of the Bone Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) Muhammad Idris said “we are still investigating the cause of the incident”.

According to Idris, the 100-meter-long bridge was constructed in 2007 to connect two villages in Bone.

“The bridge was designed for two-wheel and four-wheel vehicles. We do not know why it suddenly collapsed,” he said.