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JAKARTA: A tour bus sank in a ravine on Indonesia’s main island of Java after apparently its brakes malfunctioned, killing at least 27 people and injuring 39 others, police and rescuers said on Thursday (11 May March).
The bus was carrying a group of Islamic high school students, teachers and parents from the city of Subang, in West Java province, when the accident occurred on Wednesday night on a winding road, the local police chief said, Eko Prasetyo Robbyanto.
He said the bus was heading back to Subang from a pilgrimage site in the province’s Tasikmalaya district when it sank into the 20-meter-deep ravine after the driver lost control of the vehicle in an area with a series of of steep falls in Sumedang district.
Rescue teams search for survivors and victims inside the wreckage of a bus that sank in a ravine in Sumedang, West Java, Indonesia, on March 11, 2021 (Photo: BASARNAS via AP).
Police were still investigating the cause of the accident, but survivors told authorities that the vehicle’s brakes apparently malfunctioned, Robbyanto said.
Rescue teams worked through the night using cranes to rescue injured survivors from the wreckage of the fatal accident.
Bandung search and rescue agency head Deden Ridwansah said the 27 bodies and 39 wounded were taken to a nearby hospital and health clinic, including the body of a boy who was trapped under the overturned and pulled bus. out of the rubble Thursday morning.
Thirteen of the injured were treated for serious injuries, Ridwansah said. The driver and teenage passengers were among the dead.
Rescue teams search for survivors and victims inside the wreckage of a bus that sank in a ravine in Sumedang, West Java, Indonesia, on March 11, 2021 (Photo: BASARNAS via AP).
“The deaths are a mixture of children and adults,” Bandung rescue agency official Mamang Fatmono told AFP.
A television video showed police and rescuers from the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) evacuating injured victims and taking the dead to ambulances. Bereaved relatives waited for information about their loved ones at Sumedang General Hospital, while others tried to identify the bodies deposited in a morgue.
This photo taken on March 10, 2021 shows rescuers evacuating victims of a bus accident that sank into a ravine in the Wado sub-district of Sumedang, West Java, which claimed 27 lives. (Photo: AFP / BAGUS AHMAD)
Traffic accidents are common in Indonesia due to poor safety regulations and infrastructure.
In December 2019, 35 people were killed when a passenger bus fell into an 80-meter-deep ravine and crashed into a fast-flowing river on the island of Sumatra. In early 2018, 27 people were killed after a packed tour bus crashed down a hill in the mountainous area of West Java.
