At least 54 people were killed when a three-vehicle collision in Indonesia exploded into flames, trapping the victims, most of them schoolgirls, inside their burning bus, police said on Thursday.
Forty-nine girls, aged between 17 and 18, died in the inferno after the bus was crushed between two vehicles on Wednesday evening on a dark and busy highway near Situbondo, 830km east of Jakarta.
Most of the bodies were charred after the bus caught fire, said Brigadier Supoyo from the local traffic police.
”In term of numbers of victims, this is the most serious traffic accident in the country this year,” said another officer, Second Brigadier Kusmiarni. Indonesia’s roads are notorious for accidents.
About 130 children from the Yapemda I high school at Sleman near the central university town of Yogyakarta were returning from a three-day field trip on the resort island of Bali when one of their three buses was hit by an oncoming container truck. It was then rammed from behind by a pickup.
Flames and thick smoke quickly engulfed the bus, causing panic among the girls, the driver told police.
”I told the children to open the back door but it turned out they could not. Despite my pain from being thrown in the collision, I broke some windows but the fire spread too fast,” he said.
The bus driver escaped with slight injuries while his assistant suffered burns. The driver of the truck fled and is being hunted by police while his assistant is under questioning, Supoyo said.
The last bodies arrived at the general hospital in Situbondo about seven hours after the incident at 7.30pm. Witnesses said the vehicles were still ablaze some three hours after the accident.
Doctors and paramedics, including reinforcements from the provincial capital Surabaya, were registering details of the dead before identification by relatives later on Thursday.
East Java police chief Heru Susanto said the truck’s fuel tank ruptured after the crash and caused the fire. He said its brakes could have failed on a downhill stretch of the road.
”We are all aghast and saddened. Studies have been halted until further notice,” said Martini, a manager at the high school.
She said the other students on the trip were only told of the deaths of their friends when they arrived at school early on Thursday, sparking mass hysteria and fits of weeping.
The accident blocked most of the notoriously chaotic highway that links Surabaya to Banyuwangi, where ferries arrive and depart to Bali.
Traffic jams stretched up to 14km as police diverted traffic to let ambulances get to the scene.
Indonesia’s roads see an average 29 deaths a day with an annual toll of 10 585, according to police statistics. Java is densely populated, with half of Indonesia’s 212-million people living on the island.
Four policemen on motorcycles were involved in their own accident on the way back from the crash site and had to be rushed to the same hospital as the bus victims, Antara said. — Sapa-AFP