At least 14 people died and 84 others were injured in a train collision near Jakarta, Indonesia, according to reports from multiple sources. The accident occurred late Monday in Bekasi when a commuter train struck a taxi on the tracks before being hit by an oncoming long-distance train.
Key Takeaways
A train collision near Jakarta has left at least 14 dead and 84 injured. Rescuers have completed extracting survivors trapped in the wreckage, focusing on a heavily damaged women's carriage. The crash involved a commuter train hitting a taxi before colliding with a long-distance train.
The death toll was confirmed by Bobby Rasyidin, CEO of Indonesia’s state railway firm PT KAI, as rescuers completed their efforts to free survivors from the mangled carriages. Mohammad Syafii, head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, described the evacuation process as delicate, involving specialized personnel to extricate trapped passengers.
A women-only carriage sustained the most damage in the crash, with all victims reported to be women who were pinned by crushed metal. Rescuers used angle grinders to cut through the wreckage and reach survivors. President Prabowo Subianto visited a hospital in Bekasi and agreed to build a flyover near the train tracks to alleviate traffic congestion, noting that parts of the train network are poorly maintained.
The crash has highlighted concerns about Indonesia's aging railway infrastructure. Adriansyah Yasin Sulaeman, an executive director at Forum Transport for Jakarta, emphasized the need for improvements, particularly separating tracks for express and commuter trains. The incident comes amid a history of land transport accidents in Indonesia, including a train collision in West Java province last year that killed four people.
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