JAKARTA: A women-only carriage at the back of a commuter train was crushed into twisted metal after another train slammed into it on the outskirts of Jakarta, in one of Indonesia’s worst train accidents.
At least 14 people were killed and 84 wounded in the collision, state-owned rail operator Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) said on April 28.
Among those trapped was textile worker Endang Kuswati, 41. For hours, her family did not know whether she was alive.
Endang was on her way home from her workplace in Pasar Baru, Central Jakarta, when the commuter line train she was travelling on was struck from behind at East Bekasi station in West Java on Monday (April 27) night.
“She was caught in a crush of people, but she was still able to call her aunt,” Muhammad Iqbal told The Straits Times.
After receiving the call, Endang’s family members rushed to the crash site at East Bekasi station, arriving there at around 11pm, but chaotic scenes meant it was hours before they could confirm her whereabouts.
“We weren’t sure whether she had been taken to a hospital or if she was still in the train, because we weren’t allowed to go to the platform,” he said
It was only at around 2am, after looking through a reporter’s photographs, that they realised Endang was still stuck inside, underneath a crush of people and twisted metal.
Endang’s husband was then allowed onto the platform and was able to communicate with his wife during the evacuation process.
“She was finally freed from the wreckage and brought to the hospital at around 7am,” Iqbal said.
He added that Endang was conscious and was currently undergoing X-rays to determine the extent of her injuries.
“Her body was swollen but we don’t know what internal injuries she has,” he said.
At a press conference the morning after the incident, KAI executive director Bobby Rasyidin said: “The evacuation has taken some time, over eight hours, because we are being very careful.”
The incident occurred at around 9pm local time (10pm Singapore time) on April 27, when a commuter line train stopping at East Bekasi station in West Java was struck from behind by a long-distance Argo Bromo passenger train headed towards Surabaya, East Java.
Videos of the aftermath posted online by bystanders show the locomotive car of the Argo Bromo crushed by the back-most carriage of the commuter train, which is designated as a women-only carriage.
Of the 84 names of injured victims listed on the whiteboard at the police post, only 18 were men. The other 66 victims were women.
KAI spokesperson Anne Purba said all 248 passengers of the Argo Bromo had survived and have been transported back to Gambir station in Jakarta.
“As of now, we are stopping all trains leaving from Jakarta, both from Pasar Senen and Gambir,” she said.
According to a KAI press release on April 28, a total of 25 train trips have been cancelled due to the accident.
At least 54 victims were being treated at Bekasi Regional Public Hospital on April 28 morning.
President Prabowo Subianto visited the hospital on Tuesday morning and pledged to “tidy up” all the railway crossings on the island of Java.
“In Java there are 1800 railway crossings like this. They date back to Dutch colonial times,” he told reporters at the hospital. “I have ordered all of them to be tidied up… We have done the calculations and It will cost almost 4 trillion rupiah (US$231 million).”
He added that the victims of the crash would receive compensation from the government. - The Straits Times/ANN
