Date 2 October 2010 Country Indonesia Type of incident Rear-end collision | Location Petarukan Operator PT Kereta Api | |
Time 03:00 local time (20:00, 1 October UTC.) | ||
The Petarukan train collision occurred on 2 October 2010, at Petarukan, in Pemalang Regency of Central Java, Indonesia, when two intercity trains collided with each other. Thirty-six people died as a result of the accident, and 50 people were reported injured.
Contents
Accident
At 3:00am local time on 2 October 2010, an Argo Bromo Anggrek executive train travelling from Jakarta to Surabaya ran into the rear of a Senja Utama Semarang business train at Petarukan,Pemalang a city on the north coast of central Java. The Argo Bromo executive train had 336 passengers on board, while the Senja Utama Semarang business train was bound for Semarang and carrying 663 passengers. The location of the crash was at track 4 of Petarukan station.The Argo Bromo Anggrek train is supposed to pass the slower Senja Utama Semarang train (which is waiting to be passed at track 4),on track 3, but it passed a danger signal and eventually rear-ended the waiting train. Three carriages derailed and overturned, 36 people were reported to have been killed and 50 injured, with the death toll expected to rise. The accident was the deadliest in Indonesia since the Bintaro train crash on 19 October 1987, which killed 156 people.
Because of this crash, rear-end buffer cars (baggage car,power car, or an empty passengers coach) were mandatory for every locomotive-drawn passenger trains in Indonesia.
At around the same time, a second crash in Surakarta (Solo) killed a single person when an economy train was grazed in the rear by an express train.
Cause
A spokesman stated that the cause of the accident was a signalling error. Driver error was not ruled out, however.
Reaction
A spokesman for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that "The President has instructed a sanction against whoever was responsible for the accident."
Director General of Railway Affairs at the Ministry of Transportation Tunjung Inderawan offered apologies for the two incidents, saying that "I apologize to the families of all the victims of the train accidents."