Jakarta Govt May Sue MetroMini Over Fatal Collision
Jakarta. The Jakarta government is considering taking legal action to sue the operator of the MetroMini bus that was struck by a train on Sunday morning, killing 18 people on board.
“According to the Law on Transportation we can file a lawsuit against the owner of the bus involved in an incident. We will sue them so they will learn their lesson,” Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama said on Monday.
“The transportation agency will help the victims sue the operator and will hire an attorney to sue MetroMini.”
Basuki said he will also sanction officials at the West Jakarta office of the transportation agency for not imposing tighter monitoring on bus drivers operating in the area.
The train was traveling from North Jakarta along Jalan Tubagus Angke in West Jakarta when it hit the MetroMini bus after the driver reportedly ignored warning signs of an approaching train and drove forward to cross the tracks even though train barriers were shut.
Eighteen people on board the bus were killed in the incident including the bus driver, and the remaining six passengers are in critical condition. No one on board the train was injured.
The Jakarta administration deployed 750 officers to conduct raids on public vehicles across the capital's five municipalities after the incident. Following the incident, the Jakarta Transportation Office also decided to eliminate bus routes that cross railway tracks.
The incident mirrors that of another West Jakarta crash on Nov. 28, in which a TransJakarta bus collided with a train at a railroad crossing.
No one was killed in the accident, but the bus driver has since been arrested and charged with criminal negligence and endangerment.
Transportation expert Djoko Setijowarno of Soegijapranata University in Semarang, Central Java, said bus operators must employ stricter recruitment requirements, pointing out that buses are often driven by reckless, unqualified or even unlicensed drivers.
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