Stanley Vidianto
JAKARTA, April 28 (Reuters) – The death toll from a train crash near the Indonesian capital Jakarta has risen to 14 and 84 others were injured, with the train operator saying on Tuesday that rescuers had completed efforts to rescue survivors still trapped in the wreckage.
A commuter train collided with a long-distance train in Bekasi, a suburb of Jakarta, on Monday night.
Bobby Rasyidin, chief executive of Indonesia’s state railway company PT KAI, said the death toll had risen to 14.
Mohamed Shafie, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, said on Tuesday that the evacuation had been completed, adding that the process of rescuing trapped passengers from the damaged carriages was delicate.
“We need to have people with certain skills involved in targeted rescues,” he said, adding that there were no more passengers to be found, although rescuers would take action if they found body parts as they continued to search the wreckage.
A women-only carriage bore the brunt of the accident. All the victims were women, most of whom were pinned down by crushed metal, Syafy said.
Rescuers used angle grinders to cut through the metal of the cars and reach survivors before escaping the train.
Bobby told an earlier news conference that the commuter train first collided with a taxi on the tracks and was then struck by a long-distance train.
Taxi operator Green SM Indonesia said on Instagram that the taxi involved in the accident was part of its fleet. The company said it has sent information to authorities to assist with the investigation.
Green SM Indonesia is the Indonesian branch of Vietnamese electric car taxi operator Green and Smart Mobility JSC, a subsidiary of Vingroup.
President Prabowo orders investigation
President Prabowo Subianto said after visiting a hospital in Bekasi that he had agreed to build an overpass near the train tracks to help solve severe traffic congestion, adding that authorities would investigate the accident. He said large parts of the train network were not well maintained.
Indonesia’s National Transport Safety Commission (KNKT) is investigating the accident.
Rescue workers and people, some of them searching for relatives, descended on the train station on Tuesday.
Passenger Heriyati said she initially planned to use the women-only compartment but ultimately opted for the one at the back. When the accident happened, she was calling her husband and asked him to pick her up at the station.
“Before I even finished the call, the trains collided,” she said.
Commuter trains are among the busiest in Jakarta, the world’s most populous city. On Tuesday, PT KAI said several commuter train trips were cut short due to the accident.
Land traffic accidents are common in Indonesia. A 2024 train collision in West Java province killed four people and injured dozens more.
(Reporting by Stanley Widianto, Willy Kurniawan and Tri Iswanto; Editing by John Mair and David Stanway)
